Third Impressions
by Pencilwalla
Summary: They're finally together, but their problems are just beginning. Secrets are unveiled. Shishio and the Order have joined forces, and a murderer is on the loose. When even fate conspires against them, who will win? Sequel to Second Impressions. Complete.
1. Wives, Babies, and Therapy

_Third Impressions_

_Part I_

"Oh, don't look now, it's Yumi Komogata," Kaoru whispered. "She's my archnemesis!"

"You have an archnemesis, Kaoru?"

"Of course I have an archnemesis! You do too- that Shishio person you told me about!"

"Yumi is his lover."

"Figures she'd go for a pyromaniac zombie."

The annual RK Photo company party was held in a restaurant called Efaanite. There was a large private hall below said restaurant, but in contrast to the gleaming public are, the private hall was badly lit, dingy, and generally unpleasant. Still, every year, it was cleaned up, lit up, and beautified for the party.

Seated at the long bar on one side of the room, Kaoru and Kenshin watched the guests arrive. Kaoru was pointing out people she knew and making sarcastic, witty, or just plain funny comments on them as they came in, since she didn't know if Kenshin knew anyone besides Shaista Von Du. Not that she had told him his "ex" was coming.

"Oh, and that's Vanhilda. She's supposed to be Russian but she was born in Kansas. If she'd done some real research instead of watching old war movies she might be more convincing."

Vanhilda had coiffed gray hair and a bad accent that was supposed to be Russian but sounded slightly Irish. She was wearing a long fur coat and ugly shoes.

"Why do all these models have weird names?" Kenshin asked.

"They want to stand out so they give themselves cool names. The ones that always stand out to me are the ones with normal names. The girl over there- the skinny one in the ugly dress- she's Sano's latest client. Her mom was a failure model so now she's forcing her daughter to live her dreams. Janice, I think her name is. I did a shoot for her for some kind of cream."

"Your clients are probably more pleasant then mine are."

"Have you ever fought with a snarky agent?"

"Have you ever had to climb out a vent because there are ninjas gassing the building?"

Kaoru stared at him, slowly sipping her ice water. "Ninjas gas people?"

"They were more ninja wannabes."

Kaoru nodded in understanding. "Like model wannabes. They've got the attitude but no talent whatsoever."

"In my line of business, wannabes are always a good thing."

"Why? They're easier to...dispose of?"

"That and the fact they're not much of a threat. They can't really do anything, so anyone can handle them."

"Isn't it a lot of work? Managing all these people, I mean."

"Not really. My organization practically runs itself. All I really do is review reports and put things together. And kill people."

"Fun. And I thought my job was interesting."

They continued their light banter for a while, comparing notes on their respective coworkers. Kaoru didn't work with anyone else regularly; she only really dealt with Roma and the clients. Kenshin, on the other hand, had a whole host of allies who were as weird as he was.

Their conversation moved to their personal lives- more specifically, their friends. Besides Sano, they didn't have mutual acquaintances, but Kaoru was surprised to know that Kenshin knew Misao's family. Kaoru knew there had been some kind of falling out there, but Misao didn't talk about it. The two friends had been there for each other for a long time, and Kaoru knew that her family's inn was a cover occupation, but for what, she didn't know.

"Wait- Misao's family is ninjas?"

"Oniwabanshuu. Their leader is Aoshi Shinomori, a soul-eater. He told me that Misao decided she wanted to go into another line of business."

"Misao told me that he'd had a feud or something with her parents. I had the impression she didn't actually want to go to college." Kaoru remembered with a pang her friend's first year of college. There had been tears, sweat, and blood, but it had been worth it at the end when Misao had learned to smile again.

"Aoshi has never mentioned it. Although Aoshi never speaks about his personal life...I found out about Misao while he was really drunk..."

"Wait, you went out and got him dunk?"

"No, Sano got him drunk. I just happened to take advantage of the situation."

"Right. You go on and believe that."

There was a sudden silence as a new guest entered. Kaoru jumped up off her stool.

"Bunny!"

"Kaoru!" The two girls exchanged hugs excitedly. "You look fantastic! Marvelous! Superb!"

"So do you! When are you coming for a shoot, Bunny! I miss taking your picture! You make it so easy!"

"That's why I'm here, fool! I'm contracting with your company! And I want you to take my pictures! Every last one of them!"

"Ooo, what are we photographing!"

"The new Kamatari line! It's so amazing! And the Usuda line!"

"Yes! I get to see you and Kamatari and- did you say Usuda? I get to take pictures of important people!"

"What and Kamatari isn't important?"

"He's my friend so he doesn't count!" Kaoru explained. She grabbed the girl and dragged her to a bar stool next to her.

Bunny had blue hair and black eyes. Her hair was pixie cut, and her eyes were almond shaped. She was dressed in a knee length sheet dress.

"Kenshin, I'd like you to meet Bunny. She's a model from Onyx." Kaoru explained. "Bunny, this is my...boyfriend, Kenshin."

"Pleasure to meet you. Bunny said, giggling. "Kaoru, since when do you bring your dates to company parties?"

"The quality of the guys I date has improved dramatically ever since I started spontaneously kissing people." Kaoru explained to a shocked looking Bunny. There was a silence.

"Oh my god, it's Rabbit!" Shaista Von Du popped up from behind the bar, a man with disheveled hair and lipstick on his neck stumbling away from her. Kaoru looked at Kenshin, who was slowly edging away and reaching for his restraining order.

'At least I hope that's a restraining order...and not a sword...how would he hide a sword on him anyways? I guess he does have...practice...on the subject of the concealment of deadly weapons...'

Shaista excitedly leaned forward, pinning Bunny against the bar. Bunny leaned back, almost flat against the bar in her attempt to escape.

"Rabbit, you're, like, my, like...eedol!" She said excitedly. "I totally, like, love you!" This chatter was punctuated by constant giggling. Bunny gave Kaoru a look that said help-me-before-I-lose-my-mind and answered Shaista nervously.

"Uh, you mean idol? Thanks. If you could let me up, that would be amazingly great..."

"You think I'm amazing? Oh my, like, God! I, like, have to tell everyone! And-" Shaista stared straight at Kenshin. He stared back with a murderous look. Kaoru flinched; that was a scary look. No wonder people were afraid of him.

"My restraining order says five feet, Shaista." Kenshin said calmly.

Shaista pouted adorably, twisting a strand of platinum blonde hair around her hand.

"Are you still like that, Kenshin? Like, I, don't really, like, like it. You should totally be, like, nice to me!" Shaista whined. "Like, you're, like, mean. You made me cry!"

"And yet you still would not shut up." Kenshin said, resigned.

Shaista left, mercifully. Bunny stared after with a glazed look. "Unreal." she whispered. "She's so...Are there really models like that?"

Kaoru nodded solemnly. "Typical Class One." She reached for Kenshin's hand. "Sorry. I should have warned you."

"That's all right." He reassured her. Bunny excused herself to go "schmingle", as she put it, and left. Kenshin and Kaoru continued talking quietly.

Inside the restroom, Bunny wiped tears from her eyes and smiled evilly into the mirror. "So that I the Battousai." She said. "Sorry, Kaoru, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do...and this girl's gotta eat..."

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"Megumi?"

"Mm?" Megumi looked up from her pile of wedding catalogues, a pen between her teeth in an unsanitary, uncharacteristic fashion.

"Is it a bad thing if your dates get progressively weirder?" Kaoru asked despondently.

Megumi put her pen down on the table and set her notebook down.

"Good weird or bad weird?"

"Weird weird." Kaoru said. "At he company party, my friend, who I've known since I started working here, turned out to be an assassin and Kenshin had to arrest her. I mean...it seems like he's rearranging my world every time I see him...and I don't know what to do with it. It's not like he's trying to do it, but..."

Megumi dropped the magazine she was looking at. "Bunny is an assassin?" She said, alarmed.

"Apparently she was strapped for cash and decided that killing people was the way to go." Kaoru said. "See what I mean? Watching her try and stab Kenshin was weird."

Megumi stared at her. "Kaoru! Stop stressing me out! I already have to plan a wedding!"

She gestured to the piles of catalogues, flowers, fabric samples, and wedding magazines around her.

"I am getting married, Kaoru. Help me!" With that statement, Kaoru was forced to critique every single thing in the apartment, including the things that didn't relate to the wedding like vase and their carpet.

After three hours, Kaoru snuck into the bathroom and called Misao. Perched atop te toilet and hoping Megumi didn't hear, she spoke rapidly into the phone.

"Hi, Misao, Megumi's going crazy so come and save me before she eats me, okay? Bye."

"Kaoru! Come out of the bathroom and help me decide? Peach or pale pink with an orange hint?"

"They're the same, they're the same: Misao, hurry!" Kaoru reluctantly went back out to face Megumi's freak-out.

'Where is Sano when you need him?'

Misao took one look at the mess, at Megumi, and at a frazzled Kaoru who was eying the window and the fire escape beyond.

She got right to the point in typical, blunt Misao fashion.

"Megumi, are you pregnant?"

"No! I'm not!" Megumi said indignantly. "I'm a doctor! I would know if I was pregnant."

Kaoru took the chance to dodge behind Misao and cower in the corner.

Misao rummaged around in her purse. "Here. Go take this pregnancy test."

Kaoru gaped. Misao's tiny beaded bag was famous for having strange and impractically large things in it, including a variety of miniature power tools, but this was an all time low.

Megumi looked the way Kaoru felt, but she went into the bathroom while Misao and Kaoru set to work cleaning up.

They straightened the stacks of wedding stuff and pushed everything against the walls, so that the floor was clear enough to navigate. With a sigh, they collapsed on the sofa and looked at each other.

"Do you really think she's pregnant?" Kaoru asked.

Misao shrugged. "Not really. I just wanted to help calm her down."

'Yeah, because possible pregnancy is so calming...hey, alliteration...'

There was a loud crash from the direction of the bathroom. Misao jumped up over the back of the couch and began furiously knocking on the door; Kaoru attempted to follow her and fell flat on her face.

Megumi cam out of the bathroom, clutching three used pregnancy tests in one hand and supporting herself against the furniture with the other.

"I'm having a baby!" She said. Then she fainted.

Misao and Kaoru looked at each other. Clearly the situation was getting out of hand. Way out of hand.

"Nice, Misao."

"How was I supposed to know she was actually pregnant?" Misao yelled. "Just help me move her to a couch."

The two friends set to work, laying her down in the bedroom. They were about to make some tea when the front door opened.

"Sano! Megumi's pregnant!"

"MISAO! SHUT UP!"

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He was going to kill Battousai.

Yes, he'd gotten over the whole must-be-the-strongest thing, but now, he had committed the unspeakable crime of forcing him to see his therapist.

His therapist. Aoshi didn't think Battousai needed a therapist. Why did the Ishin Shishi need a therapist? Why didn't the Shinsengumi have one when they all worked for the far more sadistic (to his employees) Saitou?

Bu apparently, after Battousai's questions involving Misao and her past stint in the Oniwabanshuu (the answers to which ha been coerced out of him after he was gotten drunk), he and others had conspired to have him "work out his emotional issues."

He did not have issues with his treatment of Misao. He had done the right thing. There was no need to get anyone else involved. Threatening to show embarrassing photos of him if he didn't show up at the therapist's office had been entirely uncalled for.

Where had Battousai even gotten those photos?

Besides, he had to finish his interrogation of Kyle Wormwood. The man wasn't talking, his fanatic beliefs giving him the strength to ignore their threats. Battousai would probably be forced to draw the information directly from his mind, a long and painful process. Aoshi did not have the time to see a therapist.

But here he was. The woman, a Dr. Brown, sat before him, completely composed and unaffected by the fact that she was treating a ninja leader.

"Hello, Mr. Shinomori. I understand you have some emotional problems regarding a former member of your troupe?"

"No."

"I was told you might say that. In fact, I was informed that you were very minimalistic with your words." She flipped through her files.

"Now, you sent her away. Why?"

"It was for her own good."

"How so? She was distraught about it."

"The life of ninja is difficult and dangerous. Misao would not have been able to make it in that world. So I made her leave."

"So, you think she was unfit to be a ninja?"

"Yes." Aoshi wasn't going to explain himself to this woman. The facts were far more complicated than that.

"Why?"

"That is between Misao and me."

"No, it isn't. Misao seems to believe that you didn't want her, or disliked her. She thought it was personal."

"She is wrong."

"I see. Let me tell you the problem here. You are protective over Misao- understandable. You have known her since she was a child. But your mindset has not adapted as se has grown- so you are incapable of recognizing her own abilities and rights. Namely, her right to decide her life instead of your deciding it for her. My advice is to sit down over tea and have a long talk with her about why you did what you did in detail. She may forgive you then."

"No."

"Why?"

"I don't need to explain it to her."

"If you don't, she'll be angry."

"Irrelevant."

"So you don't care about her feelings."

"They are not my priority."

"Then I can't help you." Dr Brown said. Aoshi nodded slightly and left. A waste of time. He had work to do. This woman had nothing to do with his business.

So why were Misao's words echoing through his mind?

"_You are so horrible, do you know that?"_

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Somewhere on the river that snaked across the country just north of Onyx, a fancy boat cruised swiftly down the river.

In the bowels of the boat, an expensive lounge was occupied by two equally evil people.

Makoto Shishio, the man who had replaced Battousai once upon a time, nearly died, and been bitten by a zombie while in the middle of a cured forest fire, was the owner of the boat. He was meeting a guest of less fame but equal power.

Besh, the leader of the elusive Order of Truth.

The two men were opposites at first glance. Shishio sat in a cushy throne-like chair, sipping wine and occasionally eating sushi rolls that a lovely woman sitting in his lap was feeding him. His clothes were finely made and his accessories were made with precious gems and metals. It was clear that here was a man/zombie who enjoyed luxury.

In stark contrast, Besh stood on the bare wooden floor, in roughly made clothes and nothing but a coarse wooden walking stick. He looked like a slightly eccentric hobo dressed in potato sacks, and didn't give off any of the aura that Shishio seemed to ooze. But the two had identical eyes: eyes that had seen too much and whose minds weren't all there: the eyes of madmen with power and a mission.

"I have a proposition for you that I think you will find most interesting." Besh said.

"I would like to hear it." Shishio said, reclining back in his chair. Yumi fed him a piece of sushi, and Besh began.

"As you know, the Order of Truth is the guardian of a certain prophecy and several artifacts of the Goddess. This prophecy mentions a man. That man is you."

He paused to allow that to sink in. "I cannot reveal more unless we have an accord...but I can tell you that if we become allies, the Goddess herself will aid you. And she will do so through her sacred weaponry, which we hold."

"So I get weapons. What do you get?" Shishio asked suspiciously.

"We get to fulfill the prophecy."

"Really? Is that all?"

"We have a common enemy."

"The Battousai."

"He stands in our way. And he stands in your way. I think you will understand why it might be profitable for us to form an alliance."

"Agreed." Shishio said. "Now, what is this prophecy?"

Besh began to recite sonorously.

"A man of fire shall rule the dark, a woman of water shall bring the light, and the song of the Goddess shall be sung by her. In the hour of panic they shall give and be given. The song of the Goddess shall be restored in the song of the woman of water, and the Goddess's treasure shall be strung and oiled by her."

Shishio nodded. "I shall rule the dark...but who is this woman of water?"

"The Battousai has a new woman. She is the one. She is no longer under our control, but that can be rectified."

"Why do you need her?"

"To insure we can control the prophecy's outcome."

"We have an accord, Besh. Bring your men to mine and we will see. The Battousai's days are numbered."

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It was cold. Very, very cold.

Not that anyone else seemed to have noticed. Around her the music pounded, and men and woman in sexy clothing danced with zeal. The very air seemed to be saturated with passion and vitality. But all she knew was the cold.

Hidden in a corner beneath the jutting bar, she hugged her knees in a futile attempt to keep warm. Her clothes weren't helping either- she was dressed, like everyone else, for clubbing. Her combat boots kept her calves warm, but the tube top and miniskirt weren't doing much for her. Neither were the fishnets.

It was so damn cold. Somewhere, in the rational part of her mind, she knew that if she'd just fed more, she'd be fine. But that voice was drowned out by the feeling of inadequacy and depression and above all the bone-chilling, mind-numbing cold. She was sure that if she opened her eyes, her skin would be blue and coated with ice.

"Tokio?"

No. Oh, no, he was going to be so mad at her. She was such a failure at this! She was such a useless person! She deserved to suffer this cold, It was a fitting punishment...Why did he have to be the one to see her in pitiful, sorry state? 

She opened her eyes and forced herself to act like herself. A fake smile graced her features, and with some effort she managed to stand up and discreetly cling to the bar.

"Hajime. How nice to see you. I thought you hated clubs like this." She tried to keep her voice from shaking and her hands from trembling, but he noticed her discomfort immediately.

"When did you last feed?" The dreaded question. He was going to yell at her for this. They'd fight, they'd scream, she'd feed and she'd go, to continue on until they met again or she died from starvation.

"Paris." She admitted in a meek voice.

"You haven't fed for three months." He said. It wasn't a question, just a statement. She understood the unspoken question behind it: Why and how are you still alive?

"How could I? A girl's gotta earn her livelihood, Hajime. I've been in...Cancun...the beach was...exquisite..." She leaned heavily on the bar, panting from even the exertion of standing up. She suspected she was conscious from sheer willpower; certainly she didn't have the strength.

"Saitou! What are you...Tokio?" Great, now Himura was here. She could never understand how anyone could hate Himura, he'd always seemed perfectly pleasant to her. But then, she didn't really know Saitou's friends all that well. She didn't know Hajime all that well.

A sad thing, for a wife not to know her husband.

"You should take her home, Saitou. She looks as though she's going to faint on us." She heard Himura saying.

It was getting harder to focus, now. Her vision was blurring and her senses were dull.

Warm arms grabbed her and moved her somewhere; Tokio was past caring who or what. All she knew was that it was warm here.

Saitou looked down at the gaunt face o f his starved wife and sighed. It was going to be a long night.

- - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Flashback - - - - - - -- - -- - -- - - - - - - -- - - -- - -

"_Hi, Mom." Tokio whispered. "It'd been a long time since I visited. Things have changed a lot."_

_She'd never known her birth mother. She'd died giving birth to her daughter. After Tokio had turned thirteen, she'd set out to find out about her birth parents. This park, high up in the mountains, was the most beautiful place Tokio knew; her mother had been buried here, under a sweeping weeping willow, alongside a clear, glassy lake. Leaning against the tree, trailing a hand in the water, she sat above her mother's grave and talked. Sometimes, she swore she heard faint laughter, or scolding. It was as close as she'd ever gotten to a message from the world beyond._

"_I got married three months ago. Isn't that strange? Well, I guess I should start at the beginning. Remember how I like to tell stories, Mom? Well, I have a fairytale in reverse for you."_

_She smiled, relaxing, letting her mind drift back to the early days. She'd just turned fifteen, and was very, very sick._

"_It all started when Yaso died, Mom. She had been promised, if you can believe it, to a man who Sarah owed her life to. What nonsense that was; like anyone even does things like that in this country. I mean, they could have tried to ease into the modern world! But no, they made Yaso leave the convent even though she was sick. Probably why she died in the first place. She couldn't feed in the convent, but she would have hung on for a while longer if they hadn't moved her. That left the problem of the man who they owed the debt to, though."_

_Tokio closed her eyes, remembering the day she'd found out. It had been just after her sixteenth birthday when it ha happened._

"_His name is Hajime Saitou, and I'm his wife. It seems like a horrible thing to say, but I'm delighted to have married him. I like him-maybe even love him. Yaso would have been glad; the girl always did worry a lot."_

_Her foster parents had been humans, and they hadn't known how to treat Yaso and herself, later on. How could they? They were narrow-minded and fanatics, believing that being a succubus was something you could stamp out._

_A succubus was the female of a species derived from demons. Tokio could still recall all of the books she'd read while searching for some way to save her sister._

"_A succubus feeds two ways; indirectly and directly. Indirectly she draws off of the emotions and thoughts of the people around her; the closer the person is emotionally to the succubus, the stronger their emotions are to her. This kind of feeding is short-term, and can be gone without. Doing so will damage the succubus's health to a point but can be bolstered with more direct feeding- intimate contact anywhere from kissing to sex." – From the Encyclopedia Cuba_

_Once a succubus came of age, she needed to directly feed off of someone. Coming of age generally happened between sixteen and eighteen; the fewer succubae there were in an area, the faster they would come of age. Yaso had died from starvation. Tokio had been close to that point when she'd been married._

"_I'm scared, Mom. How do I tell him that I have no choice but to feed from him? Stupid succubae marriage laws...but I wouldn't want to feed off anyone else anyways..."_

_No one answered her questions, and the only sounds were of the faint breeze rustling through the grass and trees and chirping o the birds. But she felt better after talking about her problems. Maybe today she would finally figure out how to talk to her husband about her feeding problems._

'_That's going to be a really, really embarrassing conversation. I mean, I'm not shy about sex (succubae never are) but with Hajime? He'll so laugh at me.'_

"_Want to hear something really funny? Our wedding night was a total disaster. I was too scared to seduce him, and he was too honorable to even look at me, so naturally nothing happened. Ah, I'm hungry. Sorry, Mom, but the solitude is getting to me. I'm going home. Love you."_

_Tokio felt a smile sneak across her face, as though afraid her current mood would smite it down for daring to be happy._

'_I'll make this work, somehow. For now, I'd better get home before John and Sarah notice I'm gone and call the Adultery Police. Can't wait until my husband gets back from his business trip.'_

_Once upon a time, there was a girl who married her sister's widower for duty, not love...a girl in skimpy clothes and multicolored hair...a girl that others called a slut even though she'd done nothing to warrant it..._

_Once upon a time, two people entirely uninterested in marriage were wed..._

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It was still extremely cold.

'Indescribable cold, cold like ice, like winter, like snow, like Antarctica, like liquid nitrogen, like Aoshi Shinomori, like...cold things...the kind of cold you measure with a fancy thermometer...the digital kind...Where do you buy digital thermometers, anyways?'

Someone was taking her pulse, grasping her wrist in his hand. It was a sweaty, clammy hand, definitely not her husband's. Tokio tried to pull away, but it was futile in her condition. Her blankets were being smoothed over her, tightly against he body. Someone was touching her face with those clammy, sweaty, disgusting hands...Who was in here with her and what the hell did he think he was doing?

A door slammed. Someone obviously felt the same way she did, because now there was a large amount of cursing and frightening whimpering going on. Hajime must have walked in on this person's attempt to molest her.

More doors slammed, and Tokio felt it would be best if she opened her eyes. They felt heavy, as those she'd been remade in lead, but she managed to open them far enough to see that she was in Hajime's apartment. The door was closed, and there was a noise that sounded suspiciously like screaming coming from outside.

'This is what happens when your husband's motto is Slay Evil Immediately. I don't think I want to know...at least my brain is coherent now.'

The door opened, and Saitou closed it softly this time. His wife was wake, but only just. She looked mostly dead as it was.

"Tokio. You're awake." What was he supposed to say to her? Sorry you almost died because we have no relationship and only see each other every couple of months? She would probably smack him if he did that.

"Yeah." It had taken all of her strength to say that one word; she fell back against the bed and was out like a light.

'How can she sleep so peacefully? After what that bastard doctor was doing, I'm pissed off, but she just goes to sleep. Maybe she didn't hear him screaming in intense pain.'

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**Here's Chapter One of Third Impressions. Next chapter, Tokio confronts Saitou, and joins the rest of the gang. Also, I get to actually advance the delightfully deranged plotline. Oh, and the rating on this one is M because of Tokio; her feeding habits ruined my attempts at being child-friendly. No smut, but definite disturbing themes and implied sexuality. **

**FI and SI have done really well, with over 3000 hits for FI and over 2700 for SI. Now if only the reviews would match the hits...right now the review to hit ratio is something like 1 in 90 (SI) and 1 in 75 (FI). If I could somehow get a 1 in ten ratio, that would be so awesome...hint, hint!**


	2. First Strike: WindowWalker

_Third Impressions_

_Part II_

"Sano, you idiot rooster-head! You're such a jerk!" A pointy shoe narrowly missed his eyes, and Sano decided that maybe staying in his apartment- or what had formerly been his apartment but was now the evil lair of Megumi-sama the Frightening- was not a Good Idea.

Fleeing to the safety of his car, he hurriedly dialed his phone once securely inside, seat belted, and locked in. Just in case she decided to give chase. He silently prayed that Kenshin would pick up his phone, and meet him somewhere for protection-that is, to do guy things. Guy things. He was certainly not afraid of his fiancée, and didn't need a shrimp like Kenshin to help him. Even if said shrimp had once put him in a headlock. In front of Megumi. Who had laughed and laughed about for ages afterward.

'Why am I calling him again? Oh, right he's my best friend and he'll listen without making sarcastic comments like some people I could mention.'

"Sano?"

"Yo, Kenshin. Are you free?"

"Now/" Kenshin demanded, frazzled. Sano new it was a bad sign when Kenshin was frazzled; the stress of his life and job had given him extreme calm in the face of mind-blowing chaos.

"Yeah."

"I need another half-hour. Saitou didn't show up to work-"

"Whoa, what? Is the apocalypse here already?" Sano said. Saitou was incredibly punctual and freakishly efficient, unlike Sano. His not showing up to work was unheard of.

"No, he's with his wife."

Sano nearly dropped the phone in surprise; had Kenshin just said wife? As in married? As in Saitou had a woman who would put up with his sarcastic, evil, smoking ways? What was the world coming to? Although if Kenshin could find someone to put up with his sadism and weird sense of humor, anything was possible...

"Wife?"

"Yes, wife. She's sick, so he stayed home with her. And as soon as he left a bunch of zombies tried to destroy a building downtown, and we're still filling out paperwork for all the dead bodies." Kenshin explained.

"There are zombies? In Onyx?"

"No, in Pearl. They destroyed a bakery."

"Zombies like cake?"

"No, they were after the owner of the bakery. One of Aoshi's informants. You can see why this is problematic. I've drained Wormwood's mind, but he doesn't know anything."

"Wormwood?"

"I'll explain later. Meet me at the bar in half an hour and you can tell me what you did to Megumi this time."

"Hey! What makes you think I did anything to Megumi?"

"Why else would you call me at five in the evening?" Kenshin hung up, presumably to deal with the zombies and other issues. Sano drove to Viper and proceeded to start a fight.

A few good punches would cheer him right up.

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Her cell phone was ringing. Sano was calling her at three in the morning.

While Kaoru was used to this sort of thing from Sano, his relationship with Megumi had decreased the amount of nights he spent drunk dramatically. Unless, of course, they fought, in which case he was bound to show up at either her or Misao's house at some point. Kaoru leaned over and groped around in the dark until she found her phone flipping it open and wincing at the glow of the screen, she held it to her ear sleepily.

"Rooster-head?"

"Can I come in?" Sano sounded completely sober. Was he on drugs, or had Megumi thrown him out? Or was he hurt? She jumped out of bed, snagging a bath robe as she went into the front room and fumbled with her house keys. Opening the door, she saw Sano, slumping with depression but too clean to be drunk. His hands, she noted, were scarped bloody. He been brawling, then, which meant he was really upset.

"Get inside before you get sick." Kaoru said, dragging him to a couch. "What's wrong?"

"Megumi threw me out." Sano said in a hollow voice. "Can I spend the night?"

"No problem." Kaoru said, trying and failing to sound upbeat. "I'll get you a pillow and stuff."

She pulled some blankets and pillows from a linen closet before bringing everything into the living room. Hurrying into the kitchen, she carefully made tea. She would have liked to talk to Sano while it boiled, but in her experience anything left unattended in her kitchen was a fire hazard, and Kaoru couldn't afford to pay for repairs.

The tea was warm, and Sano drank it down in one gulp. "Thanks for the tea."

"Sano, what happened? Is this just because she's pregnant, or what?"

Sano put his cup down on the coffee table with a loud slam. "I don't even know. She just blew up at me when I got home, chased me out with her shoes. So I went to a bar with Kenshin, started a couple fights, and went out alone on the town."

"Does Kenshin know you spent the night brawling?"

"Told him I was heading home. I tried, but she started throwing stuff again. Then she yelled that she never wanted to see me again, so I left."

Kaoru sighed. She handed Sano hid bedding. "Go to sleep. I'll go and see her in the morning, okay? Assuming she doesn't call looking for you."

"Yeah. Night."

She silently willed Megumi, wherever she was, to wake and think of the man she'd just tried to beat with her footwear. _'Come on, Megumi. You know you love him.'_

Across town, in a bed for two that held only one, Megumi clutched her engagement right in one hand and the stuffed fox Sano had given her for her birthday in the other.

'_Please...please be alright...'_

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Tokio was warm. It was dawn, and Saitou had left for work fifteen minutes ago, leaving her alone in bed. She didn't mind, had feigned sleep so he wouldn't be uncomfortable.

She had fed last night, and the numb pain that had plagued her was gone, replaced with a fiery energy that she knew would sustain her for weeks. Turning over onto her side, she stretched out onto his pillow and nestled up in the warm spot he'd left behind. It was always good to see her husband, even if he didn't want to see her. It reminded her that she was not alone.

Faced with nothing to do (she was on vacation), Tokio decided to do one ofher favorite things. Rummage through Hajime's stuff.

His clothes were boring and stiff, in dark shades and rough fabrics. They were in good condition unsurprisingly. Hajime had always been a bit OCD.

Okay, a lot OCD.

He didn't seem to have any personal items in his apartment. Every drawer and cabinet was either empty or neatly organized. There was a cabinet in the kitchen full of cooking utensils, and another of instant soba, and another of sword-care equipment. There was a closet stacked high with neatly alphabetized files, presumably from work, and some stark furniture in the living room. The only two things that didn't really fit were the swords rack on one wall, which stuck out like a sore thumb, and a box in his bedroom closet that turned out to be full of what seemed to be memorabilia from his past.

There were a few newspaper articles, and old clothing, and photo albums. The note inside said that his mother had made them up for him. They were an insight into his past, a biography in pictures instead of words. There was a whole scrapbook on their wedding, with copies of the invitations, dried flowers from the bouquet, decoration sample, and even a short biography of Tokio, with a picture she'd taken of herself before the wedding. It was the only really sentimental thing her husband seemed to own.

'_Is it pathetic that the fact he actually has this stuff makes me happy?'_

The doorbell rang, and Tokio hurriedly smoothed her hair in the mirror before opening the door. Outside was a dark haired girl with a confused expression on her face and a camera slung around her neck.

"Hi, I'm Kaoru Kamiya. Your husband asked me to stay with you while he was out, said you were new in ton?"

Tokio blinked, then nodded and let her in. "Tokio Takagi. You don't really need to be here, I fed last night, so I'm fine."

"Even so, I think I'll stay. If Saitou is anything like Kenshin, he'll be all paranoid that people are going to come and eat your soul or something." Kaoru giggled.

Tokio stepped aside, letting Kaoru in and offering her tea, which she cordially refused.

"Wow, this apartment is...um..."

"Freaky? Yeah, I didn't design it, you can insult it if you want."

Kaoru started laughing again. "Your husband is OCD."

"And your boyfriend isn't?"

"How did you know that? Is everyone I know a closet stalker or what?" Kaoru demanded. "First Kenshin steals my house keys, then Misao hijacks my cell phone, now you're delving into my personal life?"

"Hajime always asks for a copy of my itinerary...although it's probably because he wants to avoid me..." Tokio mused out loud.

"Men," Kaoru said with a sigh, flopping back onto the couch with a melodramatic sigh. "Are so, so useless sometimes. I think Kenshin is the only semi-normal boyfriend I've ever had, and he's weird."

Tokio sighed. "Hajime and I have been married for five years, and we've never spent more than a few nights in the same room at one time."

Within a few hours, the two were trading stories about their own problems with men. It felt good to tell someone about how very frustrating it was, to be married in name only. Not that Kaoru's life was perfect; she'd dated some crazies, one of which had almost gotten her arrested for possession of heroin despite the fact it had been in her boyfriend's apartment. it was late in the afternoon when Koru jumped at the sight of a conveniently placed digital clock and said that she had to meet someone for lunch, an would Tokio like to come?

Having nothing better to do, Tokio joined Misao and Megumi for lunch at a deli. The food was wonderful, and Misao and Megumi turned out to be funny, intelligent, and sympathetic. They spent a good half an hour moaning and groaning before life's killjoy, work, called them back to their respective jobs. But not before Tokio had been given a whole host of contact information and invited to a club with the three girls that night.

Kaoru had to go to work herself-Bunny's shoot was sill on- and after she had left, Tokio made her husband dinner, cleaned up the house, and changed into some nicer clothing to await his return. Normally she wore showy, immodest clothing that she bought in strange places or made herself, with the sole exception of work, where she wore modest, professional clothes. But for that night, she put on nice slacks and a silky blouse. Hopefully Hajime would notice her clothes and comment.

'_Hell, I'd settle for him noticing!'_

Something Kaoru had said lingered in her head as she changed.

"_If he doesn't care for you, why am I here in the first place?"_

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The sun poked through the blinds, depriving her of the ease of sleep and forcing her to open her eyes. When she managed to do so, she found that several things were wrong. First off, there was no sun poking through the blinds. It was the middle of the night, as the clock next to her read. This brought her to the next issue: the clock. It was fancy, and digital, and had obnoxiously bright yellow numbers. And it definitely was not hers. Final problem? This was Kenshin's bedroom, and she had been sleeping there. The space next to her was empty and the bathroom light was visible through the crack under the door. Kenshin must be in there.

There was a click, and the bathroom door opened, blinding her temporarily. She covered her face with a forearm, peering at Kenshin, who mercifully turned out the light and sat down on the bed.

"Shouldn't you be asleep?" He whispered, pushing her back down onto her back. "It's the middle of the night."

Kaoru reached over and flicked on lamp, bracing herself. She rubbed her eyes and slowly, carefully opened them to accustom her self to the light. Peering at him, she narrowed her eyes and glared.

"This," She gestured to the bed. "Is becoming a bad habit."

"What is becoming a bad habit?" Kenshin asked lazily, reaching over her to switch of the lamp.

"This. Us. In the apartment, which is bigger than my house, in this room. In this bed. Get your mind out of the gutter. Sleeping. It's a bad habit."

She found herself being dragged backd own onto the bed and felt an arm wrap around her waist. "How is it a bad habit?"

Kaoru snuggled up to him despite her annoyance. It was cold in his apartment. She suspected it was that way on purpose, to give him an excuse to hold her. Not that he really needed an excuse.

"It's a bad habit because I have a house. It's bad because I have a shelf in your bathroom, and I leave my stuff over here, and you gave me closet space. You're a cat person, aren't you? Cat people are always sneaky."

"Yes, I am a cat person. And I am not sneaky, you are just oblivious."

"So this is a ploy to get me to move in with you! I knew it!" Kaoru crowed triumphantly.

'_Sneaky cat person boyfriend, trying to get me to live with him already...although I would probably get better food if I did...crap, another pint in his favor...'_

"Is it working?" Kenshin asked.

"Yes. No. Maybe. If you were a lousy cook, this would be easier." She hadn't meant to admit that. Clearly it was sleep deprivation. She was not subtly hinting that she could be bribed with food. Right.

"So if I feed you, you'll move in with me?" Kenshin asked. He was whispering directly into her ear now, lying beside her. His bed was much nicer than hers was...

'_Must resist evil boyfriend's persuasive tactics...'_

"Resistance is futile." Kenshin told her, smirking. "Go back to sleep." She rolled over so she was facing the obnoxious alarm clock again, and then decided she'd rather sacrifice her pride then her sleep. After all, it was a proven point that food was far more important than pride. It seemed employment, warmth, and sleep fell into the same category.

She was dimly aware of his burying his nose in her hair before she drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

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Misao was not a heavy sleeper. Being raised by ninjas may have caused this problem; it could have been her popularity in high school; it could even be her hyper alert weasel perceptive skills. All she really knew was that when the phone rang in the middle of the night, she answered it, and even managed to sound intelligible, as compared to Kaoru, who always sounded drunk on the phone.

"Will you accept our offer?" A voice was speaking. She didn't recognize it and was about to ask who it was when another person answered the speaker.

"It's wonderful. At last I can have her again. It's been too, too long." Another voice, sounding like that of a young man, spoke in delighted tones. He sounded faintly unhinged. Misao dubbed him Crazy Boy mentally.

Wrong Number spoke again. "Very well. Drink this. We will expect your call when you complete your mission."

"I'm so happy. She'll love me so much, and everything will be great." Crazy Boy was still rambling on. His voice was slightly familiar, but Misao couldn't for the life of her remember where she had heard the voice.

The phone hung up. What had that been? Who'd been talking? And why ha they called her?

The only possible explanation was that that one of the two people had phoned her, knowing she'd hear the conversation. Or a third party had been present. It wasn't just a random call; someone had wanted her to get a message.

Dialing her phone again, Misao called the Aoiya. If anyone knew who Crazy Boy and Wrong Number were, it was the Oniwabanshuu.

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It was a dark room, lit only by a few candles and a single bare bulb. The walls and ceiling were slightly moldy, and the skittering of bugs was audible. This cramped room looked at best like an abandoned basement, but it was the underground room of Seijuro Hiko XIII, and it was currently occupied by four men.

"The Order of Truth has joined forces with Shishio." Saitou began. "The zombies that took out the bakery carved the same symbols Wormwood has on his staff onto the wall."

"Problematic, but not unexpected." Kenshin mused aloud. "The Order wants Kaoru. Shishio wants my head on a stick. Their goals are similar."

"Why is the Order after your woman?" Hiko asked.

"I'm not sure. She hasn't been bothered by them at all since I unsealed her, which makes me think that they're planning something big." Kenshin said. "Wormwood doesn't know anything useful. He's been told nothing of importance. A pawn in the game, as it is."

"I am not a pawn!" Wormwood roared. He was tied to the wall so that they could ask him questions if needed. It was easier than having Kenshin project what he had learned with his power.

"The Order is planning something." Aoshi agreed. "I received a phone call this morning. Misao received an unusual phone call last night. Two people, one of whom is definitely an order operative, were discussing something. The Order operative was asking about an agreement between himself and another man."

"The second man is insane." Hiko said. "I listened to the tape."

"Which leaves us with few options. We can track down the order man and see what he knows. We can track down this insane man and see what he knows. Or we can wait for them to make a move." Saitou listed off.

"We'll have to do all three." Kenshin said quietly. "The Order man lives in another country. We can try and get his visa revoked."

"how do you know that?" Saitou asked.

"His wife, Naomi, spoke to some of my men yesterday." Kenshin explained.

"What a coincidence. We didn't know about all this yesterday." Saitou muttered.

"We are being baited." Aoshi confirmed.

"All we can do is try and predict what they're going to do." Kenshin admitted. "I looked at a list of potential targets for another attack. Top on the list are places we all frequent."

"I'll put out a guard." Saitou volunteered. "If they try anything..."

"You'll catch them." Hiko finished. "Has it occurred to you idiots that the real targets will be your women?"

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- Excerpt from the Gem Daily, October 29th

**Shadow Murderer Strikes Again!**

**By Lindsey Walker**

The mysterious murderer, the Window-Walker, has taken another victim. A woman who owned a pastry shop in Viper was reported missing this morning. Her brain was later found stabbed onto an iron fence in Platinum, outside an estate.

This killer has murdered four other victims thus far, all with seemingly no connection. The list is as follows:

Gaia Moon, a fortune-teller who was killed in her tent off of the highway.

Theresa Jones, an elderly woman living by herself as a homeless person.

Danny Thompson, a waiter at a restaurant in Viper who was recently featured in this very newspaper for winning a kendo tournament.

And young Mark Malter, a teenager at Garrett Boarding School, who was visiting his sick aunt in Gold.

Each of these innocent people was known to have vanished first; then a few hours later, their brains are found publicly displayed somewhere in Gem. The police have no leads, and the citizens cry for justice, how much longer will the Window-Walker go free?

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Kaoru put the newspaper article down with a heavy sigh. The appearance of the Window-Walker at the beginning of the month had caused a wave of fear to sweep through the city. The very idea that anyone could kill in such a brutal way, leaving their brains displayed like trophies...it was sick. No one had found a body yet, either; only the brains. A DNA processing facility had been set up in each of the Three Districts to cross reference the brains with the list of missing persons, so that each victim could be identified quickly.

She felt sad at the thought of the bakery owner. She had passed the bakery many times on her way through the city, and had always wanted to stop in and have a bite. Somehow she'd never gotten around to talking to the sweet old lady she'd seen almost everyday. No she never would.

Something was nagging her about this article. The names seemed familiar to her, and not just because she'd seen the articles and reports in the media. It was some other thing, linking the list of names together. But the connection eluded her, and she gave up. She would remember later, surely. For now, she was finally getting to see Kenshin.

The murders were being handled by her boyfriend and his allies; because they had figured out they were being done at least partially with magic. The normal police, even the Onyx police, were mystified, and the onyx police force was trained to handle magic. Kenshin had been very busy, trying to catch the Window-Walker while preventing his other enemies from getting the upper hand or attacking. There hadn't been any more zombie attacks, but Kaoru still worried about his safety.

The phone rang, loudly, cheerily. It nearly fell off of the counter, and she cursed the evils of the vibrate setting on her cell. The call was from Kenshin. Her stomach flipped. What if he was hurt?

"Hello?" he asked nervously, hoping it was him and not someone else passing on bad news.

"Kaoru?" It was Kenshin, thank goodness, and he sounded alright. But that meant he was cancelling their date, as he'd done several times ever since the murders started. Kaoru knew that he didn't mean to leave her hanging every time; it was just that things always panned out that way.

"Something came up?" Kaoru asked. She already knew the answer.

"I'm sorry-" She cut him off, not wanting him to feel any worse. The sudden gloom that had overtaken the city wasn't his fault, and he was trying to prevent people from dying.

"I know." She told him. "I know. You're not hurt, are you?"

"Not yet." Kenshin said dryly. "The public is bound to have me hanged sooner or later, don't worry. I should be there when you get home."

"Home as in your apartment, or home as in my house?" Kaoru asked. While Kenshin had never officially asked her to move in, she'd spent most of he last two months in his apartment. Until he asked her, though, she wasn't going to call it home.

"My apartment, if you don't mind." There was a loud crash in the background. "Can't these idiots do anything without me? Kaoru-"

"You have to go. Bye." She hung up the phone and laid it down on the sofa carefully. It seemed she was going to end up at Ryuichi's place again.

Ryuichi had been her father's student when she was a child; he'd gotten a place in a kendo school abroad and moved away when she was fourteen. He'd recently returned to the city, and had looked her up. He was one of the few people that knew about her past, and she could reminiscence with him for hours on end. She suspected Kenshin was a little jealous-he twitched at the mention of his name- but she wasn't going to lose the man who'd acted as her brother when she was younger just because of his insecurities.

Normally he came and picked her up in the evenings if she was free. The way things were between Kenshin and her, he had decided to drive by every evening on his way home, and if she left the porch light on, she a home; if it was off, she was out. Flipping the switch, Kaoru made herself some coffee and settled in to do some work. She had a hour before her friend showed up, and she intended to use it.

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Misao, Megumi, and Tokio were in a girl's fantasy: a wedding dress salon, full of every kind of dress imaginable. The foxy doctor was getting married in the spring, and was planning to wear an elegant, classy, and modern sort of own. Having told all this to an excited and perky saleswoman, they were swept into a spacious dressing room and given an assortment of gowns to try on and critique.

Kaoru was at work and had promised to be there for the rest of the wedding planning, and had sworn to be at any other dress-related trips they made.

Megumi began trying things on immediately. The first gown was a lacy, poofy thing with no sleeves and no back. There was an ugly looking string lacing the dress up from behind.

Both Tokio and Misao hated it on sight.

"No. You look like a Barbie doll."

"At least Barbie had a visible figure. In this, you look like you have no legs, no hips and a huge chest."

The next number was a scarlet, calf-length dress with ruffled hems and one tick strap on the right shoulder. The worst part was a giant, cabbage looking rose centered on Megumi's chest. Megumi took one look at the flower and refused it.

"I mean, scarlet? For a wedding?" She ranted.

"Sexy, but not the look for you." Tokio agreed.

There were a few more dresses that stood out: a pink dress that was barely decent and sparkly to boot ("Halloween costume for a three-year-old." "All that glitters isn't suitable for a married woman."), an ivory dress that fit beautifully but was decorated with snowflakes ("Spring wedding! Spring! The season after winter!" "Winter Wonderland is not our theme."), and a long pale peachy dress that had extremely poofy sleeves ("Too Alice in Wonderland." "Looks like Cinderella's pumpkins to me.")

Tokio excused herself to visit the restroom when they finally escaped and took refuge in the food court. The other two girls discussed the other places they could visit and began making heated plans to see them next weekend.

After fifteen minutes, Misao and Megumi went to check on Tokio.

They couldn't find her in the bathroom, or in any of the nearby stores. She wasn't answering her cell phone.

The sound of sirens alerted them to her location. She was lying facedown on the ground, bruised, and with an alarming pool of blood spreading out beneath her. There were paramedics, and police on the scene already. Misao called Saitou while Megumi wormed information out of the medics. All she found out was that someone had called the emergency number and asked for an ambulance, saying they'd found an injured woman.

Later, in a nonhuman hospital, a doctor told them something had attacked her magically. She was lucky to be alive. Tokio herself was in a coma, and unlikely to wake unless they hunted down whoever had attacked her.

The headlines saw the cut on the back of her head and immediately blamed the Widow-Walker. Little did they know how right they were...

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There was a chilly autumn rain the night Kaoru disappeared, and the weather only worsened while she was gone.

She had gone to see Ryuichi, and never returned. Ryuichi had been out of town the entire three days she was missing, something Kaoru had definitely known about. No one knew where she'd been going when she lied to her boyfriend and headed out into the night.

The three day passed slowly, agonizingly. Kenshin spent all of his time at work, obsessively trying to figure out where she was, who had taken her, and what they wanted. There were massive searches conducted all over the city, and outside of it, even a look at Shishio's abandoned hideouts. Nothing came of it; Kenshin couldn't find hide or hair of the woman anywhere.

He was at home for the first time in three days, looking at a map and guessing where his enemies would keep her. He'd identified thirty places when the sound of thunder crashed through the apartment. All of the windows were closed (and made of thick, bulletproof glass), so Kenshin went into his bedroom, in the direction of the sound.

The window above the fire escape was open, and a dripping, sobbing Kaoru was half way through it.

He ran to her and pulled her through, trying to calm her down.

She shook her head wildly and grasped his shoulders tightly. She stared at him with wide, fearful eyes.

"I know." She whispered in horror. A flash of lightning illuminated her terrified face for an instant. "I know who the Window-Walker is!"

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**(evil laughter) Cliffhanger! I could write more...but then, it would need another twenty pages or more, and that would be way too long. (evil smile) I'm sure no one wants to know who the Window-Walker is anyways, right? **

**The ratio of reviews to hits last I checked is 1 to 24. Not bad. Please review, it makes me write more, and if no one reviews...the mystery shall never be revealed, and the identity of the Window-Walker will remain a secret!**


	3. Killer Brother, Little Brother

_Third Impressions_

_Part III_

She didn't think she'd ever been this panicked in her whole life. Her life hadn't always been easy, but what she had experienced in the last three days would be branded onto her heart forever. Kaoru wasn't sure she'd ever be able to sleep easy again, not after this.

"It's Ryuichi." She told Kenshin hurriedly. If she thought about the words she was saying, she'd never be able to tell anyone, would collapse into a broken shell of herself.

'_No choice but to get it all out now. Before...someone else dies like that...'_

Kenshin nodded, listening. He wasn't going to interrupt her while she could still talk; whatever she had seen was still wearing heavily on her mind. He was surprised she could speak, but she did, despite her bloodless face and tight grip on his arm.

"He's lost his mind, Kenshin..."

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_Kaoru had never been one to watch the news, but now she was watching intently. They were showing a detailed report on the way Window-Walker was thought to de-brain his victims and she felt an odd, morbid desire to know. Something was nagging at the corner of her mind, like a fluttering piece of fabric at the corner of her eye. It tugged at her, trying to bring some memory she'd forgotten back to the surface. What wasn't she getting?_

_The sudden knowledge felt like a cold knife, slipping in between her ribs and slicing through her heart. She had been connected to all of these people. The fortune-teller she'd always passed on her way to see her biological father; the elderly moan who'd once been her neighbor; the waiter who she'd read about in the paper because the article had mentioned kendo; and the student who attended the same boarding school Yahiko did. And another terrifying thought crept up on her: Kaoru had mentioned every single one of those people to Ryuichi at some point. _

'Oh, Goddess, please let this be some awful coincidence...'

_As far as she could tell, there was no other link between the murders. They'd been of different walks of life, different ages and genders, none of hem were related...the only connection was Kaoru herself. What could she do? Would the police take her seriously? It was definitely not something she could keep to herself. And what about Ryuichi? If he was guilty..._

'If he's the killer, I have to turn him in. He's killed five people already.'

_If Ryuichi found out she knew, or suspected, would he kill her? Probably. He'd hidden his murderous thoughts well, but now that she knew, he'd guess just by looking at her what she had discovered._

_And then the Gem Daily would have another article on another victim; Kaoru Kamiya, photographer. It would create all kinds of connections between her and Danny Thompson, and then no one would ever guess that Ryuichi was guilty of anything. _

'I'll tell Kenshin. Right now. As soon as he gets out of the shower...'

'Now, now, you wouldn't want anything to happen to Yahiko, would you?'

'Who was that? Get out of my head!'

'Don't even think about telling anyone anything. In fact, leave. Or your only family is going to suffer very badly.'

'I'm not going to keep silent about this! He murdered five people!'

'And Yahiko will be the sixth if you can't keep your mouth shut. Now, wait until Battousai comes out and tell him you're going to see Ryuichi. And don't even try to tell him anything, or else.'

_Inwardly seething, Kaoru did as she was told. Kenshin offered to go with her repeatedly, but Kaoru insisted on going alone. She promised to take his car as he asked, and lied cheerfully, saying she only wanted to get a jacket._

_As soon as she was outside, she hailed a cab and went straight to Ryuichi's place. Ryuichi was waiting for her._

"_Kaoru, you're here. I thought you would be here soon, just like you said. Sit down, have dinner."_

_She knew better than to try and confront him, so she feigned good humor and ate the food, shuddering inwardly with every bite. How could she get out of this mess? If only she could somehow contact Kenshin, she'd at least have the reassurance of knowing her brother would be rescued. But Ryuichi was watching her like a hawk staring at her the entire time they ate._

_And when she tried to get up and put her plate in the kitchen, she couldn't move. The arms of the chair had wrapped around her, holding her arms fast. There was no use in struggling; the wood held like steel, and the touch of it on her skin sent a pain that she recognized from her old sealing spell shooting through her throat. A spell to keep her from using her magic. The old sealing spell had literally knotted her magic, and she was still weak; but time enough had passed for her to at least try and learn the counterspell for the knot. Kaoru glared down at the chair, her eyes hidden by her bangs. It would do no good for Ryuichi to see her rage._

"_They told me you wouldn't understand at first. That I'd have to explain it to you." Ryuichi explained calmly._

'Who are they? The people who told him to kill people? The voices in his head?'

"_Explain what to me?" Kaoru asked, genuine confusion coloring her tone._

"_Everything. You think I'm a murderer. But I'm not." Relief swept through her. he wasn't the killer. The person who' invaded her mind had either been mistaken, or trying to help her in a roundabout sort of way. _

"_I killed all of them for you, Kaoru. So you wouldn't be sad anymore." _

'For me? I never...I'd never...I'm not a murderer! I'd never kill anyone, not after everything my foster father taught me!'

"_When you told me about those people, you looked so sad. So I got rid of them for you. Murder is when you kill someone for a selfish reason; but I'm not selfish. I did it for you this time."_

"_This-this time?" Kaoru couldn't stop a tremor from coming into her voice; from pain, or fear, even she wasn't sure._

"_Before, when I was abroad, you gave me some advice. You told me, whenever I was stressed, I should imagine myself somewhere else. So I did- except that I can actually do it." His face was filled with pride, like a child who's just learned to ride a bike, wanting praise and encouragement._

"_Do what?"_

"_I found out to make myself another person. If you take their minds, and then kill them- there can't be two of the same person- you can be that person for a while. I did. I was a hundred different people, and whenever I was upset, or lonely, I could be someone else." He looked dreamy, happy, at the thought of escape. Kaoru had a feeling that she was listening firsthand to the rationale of a twisted, deluded mind. Ryuichi had been stressed, so he'd sought refuge in other people's lives._

"_Didn't it cause a fuss when dead people started walking around alive?" Kaoru asked. If it hadn't been so incredibly horrible, she might have laughed. If he kept talking, she might go into hysterics and laugh anyway._

"_They don't remember you're dead while you're there. They never remember any of it." Ryuichi assured her. "So you see, I'm not a murderer. Murderers kill because they want to. I killed because it was necessary. Do you understand now?"_

"_Yes." She said. _

'I understand that you're a monster, a person with no morals and no guilt for all the lives you've taken to satisfy your own selfish desires.'

"_I'm not like your boyfriend he's a murderer. No, I'm going to give you this collar to put on, okay. Then I'll show you how I killed them. I made movies, so I could show you before I popped the question."_

"_Before you- what?" Marriage? This was about marriage? Kaoru was certain now that if she didn't get out of there soon, she would lose her mind. Under no circumstance could she let that happen. Only she knew the truth right now. _

"_Before I propose, Kaoru. Haven't you ever heard that expression?"_

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It had taken her two hours to tell her story, and after that he'd given her a sedative so she could get some sleep without nightmares.

He was aware of the fact that he hadn't fully processed the information. He wasn't even sure he wanted to. The only thing that really stuck out in his mind was Ryuichi's final goal.

"_Once he's gone, we can be together at last. Nothing will stop us. Nothing..."_

Kaoru had said that she didn't know what he was talking about, and he didn't really want to tell him the he was probably Ryuichi's final target.

It made sense, in a twisted sort of way. Kenshin would never let Ryuichi steal Kaoru without a fight, and certainly wouldn't let her marry a murderer without her knowing all the facts. Or at all. It didn't help that Kaoru had been vague about most of Ryuichi's comments on what made a real murderer. He could guess why: it had probably already occurred to her that the two men had a few things in common.

And Kenshin had killed a lot more people then Ryuichi had.

Yes, it had been a war. Yes, he was a lot older than Ryuichi was. But that didn't make either of their deeds right. Would Kaoru see him as the same as Ryuichi? Or worse, because he was in full possession of his mental facilities, and had become a killer anyway. Would having a choice make him the worse of two evils? Was he a murderer? That answer, for him, had always been difficult. Kaoru didn't have his outlook. To her, a life was a life and Kenshin couldn't deny they had both taken many.

The subject would have to rest for now. He knew who the killer was. It was time to start the hunt.

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"He attacks the person and sucks their consciousness, their self, right out of them. Hen he kills them, slowly and elaborately. He projects the selves he's collected out and no one who isn't looking for it will ever notice. Add some slight memory suspensions, and no one would ever have guessed."

"Can we assume Tokio was attacked?"

"Maybe. It doesn't fit the pattern, though."

"The pattern?"

"Kaoru didn't actually know any of the victims. They were names she knew, but they weren't even acquaintances. If he's going to go after me, and I think he is, he'll have to move to people you know slightly, than friends, then close friends, until he finds someone who can get to me without being killed first."

"So Ryuichi's building a chain?"

"Exactly."

"You're hardly an ideal, Battousai."

"He's my ideal. Isn't that the point? If he wasn't in Ryuichi's way, he wouldn't even be a target."

"Note something else. All the victims are single. And all of them are humans."

"Most nonhumans can detect someone else's presence in their heads."

"If Tokio was attacked, she's alive because of you, Saitou. Her bond with you probably anchored her self. He couldn't suck all of it out, so he trapped it instead."

"So he can't break preexisting bonds."

"Why do nonhumans form such definite bonds with each other anyway?"

"The current theory is that it's an adaptation to centuries of persecution by humans. It means we might be able to figure out who the next target will be. Someone you know personally, but not too well."

"Do I have to like them? Although Ryuichi goes after people he thinks depress me."

"Someone you've mentioned to him. Or someplace you've mentioned to him. He killed Danny Thompson just because he was from your brother's school."

"I mentioned a few models to him. I mentioned Roma, Bunny, Roma's husband. The nurses that take care of Dad. A few of my foster father's old students, and...I don't think anyone else fits. I talked about Misao and Megumi a lot, and I talked about Tae, a restaurant owner. She and I are pretty close, though."

"Get us a list. We'll start tracking them."

"Get all of this to Aoshi and Shishou. If we can catch him when he strikes next, we can end this."

"You missed something, Battousai."

"What?"

"What will you do if he attacks you outright?"

"What do you think I'll do, Saitou?"

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Harold Wormwood was furious.

First, his son had been kidnapped. Kidnapped! Abducted, after failing in his mission to contain the girl, by the ninjas! They had drained his mind of information and returned him to the Order recently, granted, but not until he was blank as a clean slate. The only way to restore his memory was to use magic, but the Order hadn't bestowed their permission upon him to do so. So he had lost, in effect, his only son.

Then he had been give charge of the Ryuichi person. An insane man, who had killed many, all they had to do was show him a few pictures, change his name, do a little cosmetic surgery via magic and they had a killer obsessed with a girl he'd never met. Ryuichi was supposed o kill Battousai and surround Kaoru so she could be reclaimed. He was supposed to give them control of Onyx so they could make it their base of operations.

Somehow or another the man had been discovered, as had he. Now he was in hiding, hoping that Ryuichi wouldn't reveal him while knowing that he would. Unless Battousai and his allies were al killed soon, Harold Wormwood was going to be six feet under soon enough.

The only thing he could try and so was reseal the girl. His little jaunt in her mind had allowed him to leave a little bit of himself there; if he could connect to it, he might be able to get into her mind fast enough to prevent the spells protecting her from obliterating him. If the girl's brother hadn't been acting as a channel the first time, he would already be dead. As it was, the girl's love for her brother had bypassed the spells completely.

Now he waited, as the hunters hunted him, hunted Ryuichi. The net was closing, and if he didn't get ahold of the girl, he would end up like his son...if he was very lucky.

He shoved against Kaoru's mind, trying to get to the piece of himself he'd stored there.

Harold Wormwood slumped, gone from the world forever. Smoke billowed from his torched body.

In a dark alley three miles away, a red-haired man looked up sharply. One down, one to go...

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Yahiko Myojin was a pretty good kid. He exercised good hygiene (most of the time), practiced his swordplay (obsessively), and at his sister's request, kept in touch even though it was humiliating.

It was like something out of a movie.

"Who are you people?" Yahiko asked curiously. "What is this?"

"We're here on behalf of your sister." One of them said. "You're in danger. Have you seen this man?" he held up a photo of the late Harold wormwood.

Yahiko took the photograph and examined it carefully.

"Yeah, he bought a newspaper a few days ago and read it in the store. Why?"

"He had your sister kidnapped. She told us you'd been threatened, so the boss sent us to pick you up."

"Who's the boss?" Yahiko asked. "And why does he care?"

"Your sister's on the phone. Ask her." The guy who had been talking to him the whole time offered him a BlackBerry.

He took the proffered phone and spoke excitedly.

"Yahiko-chan? Is that you?" Kaoru said. "Are you all right?"

"Don't call me –chan, ugly!" Yahiko yelled. "Since when do you have bodyguards you can just set on me?"

"Body- what? Hang on a minute!" he heard yelling in the background. It sounded like Kaoru was beating on someone.

"Uh, ugly? Are you okay?"

Kaoru sounded breathless over the phone. What was she doing?

"Sorry, my boyfriend sent them. You need to go with them, okay? Something's happened and I don't want you to get hurt."

"Yeah, yeah. Okay. See you when I get there."

"Bye, Yahiko-chan!" She hung up the phone before he could snap back with an insult.

'_What kind of guy is she dating, anyways?'_

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"Sanosuke Sagara, if you don't tell me where you are taking me, I swear, I will embed this scalpel in your scalp!"

Sano winced and stopped, taking Megumi's hands in his. "Look, we need to move fast. I promise to tell you everything as soon as we're there."

Megumi yanked her hands out of his and then stomped the rest of the way to the car, no mean feat in high heels.

"First I had to move into a safe house, and now this."

They drove through the winding streets, taking obscure back roads and driving far above the speed limit. Megumi held tightly to the dashboard, praying that they wouldn't get into an accident. Eventually they wound their way back into the center of the Devil Eye area, stopping outside a fancy-looking apartment building. Sano opened the door and pulled her out roughly out.

"Hurry, we can't stand outside here all day!"

"Where are we?"

"Kenshin's place. The safe house isn't safe enough."

"Then why is it called a safe house, rooster?"

He ignored her, opening the door to the building and practically carrying her up the staircase. Megumi idly admired the carpet as she was dragged along.

Kenshin lived on the top floor. After several minutes of climbing, she collapsed onto Sano as he furiously pounded on the door. He heard someone screaming from inside that sounded awfully like Kaoru's little brother and wondered if he was there as well.

"Yo! Kenshin! Let me in!" The door opened and a frazzled looking Kaoru, clutching a bokken in one hand and clinging to the door with the other, peeking at them.

"Oh , good, you're just in time for dinner." She said, fully opening the door and allowing them in.

The apartment was huge, comfortably lit, and clean. It surprised her, considering Kaoru lived there, but maybe Kenshin did the domestic chores. He was already doing the cooking, judging by the delicious aroma permeating the air in around the table. There was some sort of seafood, and salad, even some sort of chocolate pudding…

"Kaoru, did Kenshin make this?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"I'm just trying to protect me and my baby's health from your cooking." Megumi laughed her trademark fox laugh.

Sano tried to steal some food and Kaoru smacked him with her bokken.

"Wait until Kenshin gets back!"

Sano rubbed his head. "Where is he, anyway?"

"Out! You can explain things to Megumi while we're waiting, and don't even think about sneaking food!"

"Wait- how did you know that?"

Kaoru just stared at him and then pushed the two into an empty bedroom. There was a click as she locked the door behind them, and then they were left alone.

"So, why exactly are we here?" Megumi asked.

"Remember how I told you about Shishio and his zombie army?"

Megumi nodded, remembering that particular conversation well. She would never know how exactly Sano had found overhead transparencies, but then again, she didn't think she really wanted to.

"Remember how Kaoru was kidnapped and then showed up with Kenshin three days later?"

Another nod. Sano had never explained what had gone on with Kaoru, but had promised to tell her the facts later.

"Yeah, well, Ryuichi is the Window-Walker, who wants to kill Kenshin and take his place so he can marry Kaoru. She escaped from him when he kidnapped her and now Kenshin's trying to track him down. You're in a lot of danger so we're staying here. Did I get everything?"

Megumi closed her eyes. It was times like this that she realized how out of her depth she was in this new world.

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Ryuichi fondly stroked the picture of Kaoru. His secret hideout was plastered with such pictures, but this one, which he had stolen from the asylum where Kaoru's father lived, was his favorite. She was facing the camera, hair whipped by the wind, smiling brightly. It was the only such picture. All of the others had been taken from a distance and were blurred.

'_Once we're married, I'll have lots of pictures…and Kaoru will always, always, be smiling. She'll never look sad, and never cry…'_

He leaned back on the floor. There was no furniture in the closet-sized room, just a fluffy rug and a box filled with tapes and knives. The tapes were of all the conversations he'd had with Kaoru, well-used during his search for victims. The knives…well, they, too, were well used.

"Soon." He said, kissing the picture's laughing mouth. "Soon, she will be mine…"

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**This is a bit short, but I'm posting from my dad's laptop in Baltimore, so it took forever to type up. I'll try and post Chapter Four on Monday, which may even make sense.**

**Thanks for all of your reviews; they really do make me want to write more.**


	4. Blood and Curtains

**Author's Note: This chapter is, in part, loosely based off of the parts in the manga where the Kyoto Oniwabanshuu plus Yahiko and Kaoru fight the Ten Swords. Loosely, meaning it's not really based off of it. And no, Hiko does not make an appearance. Not until next chapter.**

_Third Impressions_

_Part IV_

Deep in the slums of Singapore, a man hid in a run-down hotel, clutching his prize. A cell phone and an international calling card with ten minutes left on it.

If he played this right, he could make his call and contact someone- anyone- who could help him get the hell out of here. Why had he fallen for that free trip scam? Oh, the airfare had been free, but there was no hotel, no food, and none of his luggage had made it. All he had was his backpack, his bokken, and the stolen cell phone. Well, he hadn't stolen it, but the man he'd won it off...that was another story.

'_Now, who do I call?'_

Rummaging through his bag for his address book, he found an unused calling card with one hundred minutes on it. Fate was with him; now he could definitely reach someone and alert them of his plight.

Quickly finding a likely number, he calculated the time zone differences and decided it would work out.

"Hello, this is Kaoru Kamiya speaking."

"Hi, Kaoru, this is Ryuichi, help me! I'm trapped in Singapore!"

Several thousand miles away, Kaoru Kamiya sat down on the floor. Hard. Then she ran into the next room and began trying to communicate her problems to Kenshin through sign language.

"Kaoru, what is it?" He asked, grabbing her wildly waving hands.

"Ryuichi just called from Singapore!"

Kenshin told her to keep him talking while he tried to trace the caller.

"Singapore? Ryuichi, is this a joke?"

"No! Why do you think I haven't written to you all this time?"

"You've been in town for the last couple months. I saw you a week ago. How can you be in Singapore?"

"I don't know what's going on! I accepted a free trip to Singapore, which turned out to be a scam, and I've been in the slums ever since. I had to gamble just to get hold of a calling card!"

Kenshin caught her wrist. "He's telling the truth."

Kaoru didn't waste time asking him how he knew what Ryuichi was saying. Instead she rapidly got his current address and the full story. Pacing up and down the hallway, she wrote down all of his contact information and promised to make sure he was rescued soon.

Finally hanging up, she stared, bewildered, at Kenshin.

"If that's Ryuichi...then who...?"

"I don't know." Kenshin said grimly. "But we're going to find out."

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They called him Great One, Truthful One, Almighty Besh. His personal favorite is Master Besh, Emperor of Morals. A noble sounding name that people whispered as he strides through the halls of the Order retreat.

Once, he could have garnered the respect of everyone who passed by. Now he was lucky if anyone would give him the time of day. He Order was shrinking; a truth that only he knew. But soon they would grow. Soon, it would be only the Order, their slaves, and the dead. No nonbeliever, no skeptic, no atheist would exist in their land. The woman of water would make them the kings of the world, and the man of fire would vanquish all who opposed their Goddess.

Lost in his daydream, Besh didn't notice one of his subordinates bowing at the door, waiting for permission to rise. After several minutes of silence, the hapless man dropped his papers.

Besh glanced toward the doorway, where a pale, sickly young man held a messy stack of papers in his arms as he knelt uncomfortably on the floor.

"Speak," Besh intoned. "Let your words be guided by the Goddess."

"Sir, I have the latest news of the Battousai."

"Excellent." Besh said. He was sure it was news of his death that was being brought to him. When they had found Jineh, he had been a killer already; they had simply plucked out his eyes, replaced them, and put him through several days of brainwashing therapy. By then, he couldn't tell anyone he wasn't Ryuichi, who they'd been forced to relocate to Singapore. He didn't even know it himself. Chuckling to himself at the deception, Besh waited for the inevitable news.

"Ryuichi has been discovered as the Window-Walker, Harold Wormwood is dead, and the woman of water has discovered the location of the real Ryuichi in Singapore. A team is down there, looking for him, as I speak. It is likely Ryuichi will be killed within days."

Besh felt anger seep over him in waves. Their attempt to murder Battousai had been foiled. Harold, the man in charge of him, was dead. And the idiot woman of water hadn't yet realized her destiny: to serve the Order of Truth for the rest of her days.

'_So, they dare to defy destiny? No matter; I will deal with this.'_

"Activate the amplifier for Ryuichi and give him orders to kill Battousai. Once he is dead, we must capture the girl." Besh ordered. "Do not let Battousai live."

The pale man ran off, not daring to remain in his presence. Besh rose and summoned his servants with a silver bell wrought with magic sitting on his desk.

They came, slowly, staring at him with hate-filled eyes. Their arms and legs were wrapped in chains, carved with symbols to bind them to his will. Stumbling, leaning on each other for support, they approached.

"You will ready me for a trip to see the man of fire." Besh ordered. "I want a bath, fresh clothing, and a light meal."

Unwillingly, the women dragged their chain-wrapped bodies away to fulfill their orders. Besh motioned for the youngest girl, whose name, although he had never bothered to learn it, was Tsubame, to come forward. She was wide-eyed and nervous, but he could see tendrils of anger seeping beneath her mild exterior.

"You must be the new girl." Besh paused, letting her cower for a moment. Then he clenched his fist tightly.

Tsubame collapsed, shivering, body wracked with pain. Tears leaked through her tightly shut eyelids, but she held her teeth together to keep from crying out. She would have to be strong now, the way the other girls were.

Besh left her curled up on the ground, shaking and softly weeping with pain. He had more important things to do then train the servant girls, after all.

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Tae Sekihara was worried sick.

About her friends, Kaoru Kamiya and Misao Makimachi. About her distant cousin by marriage, Megumi Takani. And about her little sister, Tsubame, who had vanished a year ago while staying with her sister. The police had received sightings of her up until a few weeks ago. She had been seen in the north, in the mountain villages, shopping. Witnesses said she'd looked pale and sickly, but otherwise unharmed.

But the constant sightings had ended, and now there was a strong possibility Tsubame was dead. Dead! Her little sister, who she'd practically been a mother to, who'd worked, shyly, at this restaurant since forever. Gone, never to grace the world with that sweet little smile again...

Her current residence was a safe house deep within the city. She'd been dragged out there after being curtly informed that the Window-Walker might be after her. Kaoru had dropped by once, but hadn't really told her anything useful except that this was all to keep her safe. Lying in bed, unable to sleep, she wondered if Kaoru was in danger. From what she'd gleaned from their brief conversation, she had a boyfriend. Was he causing all of the problems? Where did the Window-Walker come into all this? It was patently ridiculous.

And Sae. What about her twin sister? They were so used to consistent contact in the form of phone calls, e-mail, even the occasional letter. Was Sae alright, or was she in danger, too? Was someone keeping her in a safe house?

'_Will I lose her, too?'_

All she could do was wait, and hope that somehow, everything would be alright. And feed these poor guards, they were living off the most awful food...

Her thoughts lighter, Tae finally found herself in a semi-peaceful slumber.

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Misao Makimachi had a lot of clothes.

It was very difficult for her to travel, since she never could decide what to pack. Vacations usually involved calling Kaoru beforehand to help her pick and choose, then calling Megumi to help her decide on shoes. To say nothing of books! Misao Makimachi wasn't indecisive normally, but when it came to her stuff, less was definitely not more.

Living in the Aoiya, due to her current predicament, was not going well, simply because she did not have adequate closet space. Oh, no, not at all. There was barely enough room for twenty pairs of shoes, for goodness sake! Cramming all of her things into the tiny room had been a difficult task, but she had risen splendidly to the challenge. Granted, you couldn't really walk in the room- there was hardly enough room for her to sleep, but otherwise, it was good. Even if her back hurt from curling up in a ball. Maybe she would try sleeping in one of the huge suitcases. There was enough clothing to simulate a comfy bed...

Feeling a sudden wave of claustrophobia, she left the room and headed down the stairs, careful not to miss her footing as she had done yesterday. The bruises still stung.

"Omasu?" Misao called into the kitchen where her friend was probably working.

"Anything I can do? I'm bored..." No one responded. There was the sound of water running and of food cooking in the kitchen, but no sound of anyone movng around. A feeling of dread crept over her. Rushing down the staircase, Miao raced through the open door to see Omasu collapsed on the ground, her head bleeding and the window above the sink wide open. Leaning through the fluttering curtains, she quickly scanned the area for anything out of order. No sign of anything, but that just meant this attack was orchestrated by someone with skills.

Using the nearby first-aid kit, Misao treated the unconscious girl's wound and found it to be shallow. It wouldn't have been a cause for alarm if the inn hadn't been in lockdown due to Misao's presence. Being a witness to an unholy contract between a madman and a religious representative, her life had been upturned by peril. At least Kaoru got to live with her boyfriend; she was alone in this house. Although Kaoru had to live with Megumi and Sano as well, so maybe the loneliness wasn't all that bad...

Omasu's eyes fluttered open. She looked sleepily at Misao.

"What happened?" Misao demanded, helping Omasu lean against the cabinets under the sink.

"The curtains tried to strangle me. We got into a fight and I cut myself." Omasu explained.

"The curtains tried to...? But there aren't any bruises on your neck. What did you cut yourself with?"

"A knife. I was cutting vegetables with it..." Omasu looked around herself, scanning the floor. "There was blood on the floor over there, and the knife was by my hand. Where'd it go?"

Misao shook her head. "No blood, no knife, and no evidence? Something here is wrong."

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Shishio leaned back against his throne. Covered in purple velvet and encrusted with real pearls, it was a chair fit for a king. The prophecy of the Order had confirmed it. He was destined to rule the world, with the woman of water as the catalyst of the new reign. He would rule the dark, and the light- the light of his power- would be brought by the woman of water. Give and be given? He would give the girl her just dues, and she would give him everything.

The only problem was Battousai. Battousai, who interfered at every turn, who killed his men and banned him from the upper levels of society. The demon had turned him into a common criminal. And now he had taken the woman of water.

Someone had to kill him before he found out the prophecy. Knowing the red-haired pest, he would attempt to rail even against fate itself. As though he could even hope to succeed.

Who could kill an assassin? Who was skilled enough or wily enough to do it? The ideal choice, his circle of friends, was intensely loyal to him. He tended to bring out that quality in people. Ryuichi had been discovered, but he was still useful. Battousai would have to hunt Ryuichi before he killed someone else. Could Battousai fight against Ryuichi's mind battle? If he was distracted enough, killing him would be easy. It was just a matter of keeping his mind occupied.

Sipping fine wine in a room originally designed for the king of a lavish empire, Shishio smiled and tugged at Yumi's arm. There was no question about it; Battousai was as good as dead.

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They were all in the living room, working on the problem of the strangling curtains and the missing knife.

Omasu was being tended to by Okon. The rest of the members of the Oniwabanshuu were searching the house thoroughly, for any and all signs of something. Misao was with Aoshi, looking at the curtains.

So far, no one had had any luck. Omasu couldn't remember anything but the strangling curtains; the knife was still missing and there was no trace of blood; and the curtains were just the- curtains.

"Maybe it wasn't the curtains, but something that looked like curtains? Maybe the wallpaper, or a scarf, or a rope wrapped in fabric, or something patterned like our curtains. These curtains are exactly what they seem." Misao complained.

Omasu frowned, fiddling with her kimono. "It looked like our curtains. Blue, with yellow flowers."

"Lots of things have that pattern! Even your obi-" The weasel imp stopped, realizing what she had just said.

"My kimono is yellow with blue dots on it." Omasu protested feebly. "And it was still tied when I came to."

"Let me see." Misao said. "We were going to do a full examination of you, anyway. Might as well get it over with."

The enthusiastic imp, with the help of Aoshi, found an issue immediately.

"This knots not tied right. It looks good, though. Someone redid it with magic, but didn't know how to tie an obi properly." Okon commented. "if you were suddenly attacked, you might mistake blue on yellow for vice versa."

"I'm sure it was the same pattern as the curtains." Omasu insisted.

"Unless it's a trick! They want you to blame it on the curtains, or your obi! To distract from something else..." Misao exclaimed loudly. She started to pace in a frenzy around the room, hr braid whipping like the tail of a caged animal.

"No one found a breach in our defenses. That's not something that's easy to hide!"

Aoshi spoke for the first time. "No previous attack has been so crude. The Order seems to favor mind manipulation, or infiltration."

Okon nodded, understanding. She smoothed her purple kimono over her knees and stood, joining Misao in her pacing. "No one broke in. The attacker was here, inside the building. This thing with the strangling curtains is a ruse, meant to take our eyes off of the real perpetrator."

Misao whipped out a notepad and a pen from somewhere. She began to wite furiously in a messy, sprawling hand.

"Omasu, you were preparing lunch, right? Aoshi was out. I was in my bedroom, alone. Okon- where were you?"

"Fetching some rice from our storeroom." Okon supplied.

"So the most obvious suspects are Okon and I. Everyone else was out, working, with Aoshi. No one can confirm our stories, and it would be easy for us to attack Omasu."

"If there is a spy within the Aoiya, then their objective was to obtain a blood sample." Aoshi said.

Misao shuddered. Any magic involving blood was dangerous, since most of it was akin to voodoo dolls and pins. Total control over someone could easily be done with blood.

"I don't understand. Why me?" Omasu asked.

Aoshi thought of the chain theory Saitou and Battousai had proposed. If they were after Battousai, he or Saitou would be ideal links. Omasu in turn was a link to him. But who in the Aoiya would turn traitor?

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He was unnamed and unknown, but e had already caused an uproar.

In his own mind, he secretly called himself the Spy. Spy was the man who had made sure a former Oniwabanshuu member received a mysterious phone call. He was the man who had interfered with the spells within the Aoiya so that the original target had been upstairs and another member had only received minor injuries. He had managed to replace Megumi Takani's birth control with fakes so she would become pregnant (pregnant women were immune to the Window-Walker) and had arranged for all kinds o information to fall into the hands of the people guarding Gem City from Shishio and the Order.

Everything had been for the girls.

The girls! The Order generated most of its revenue from illegal slave trade, primarily that of women and children. The choice beauties and the cutest girls were kept as servants of Besh; a few others were kept as servants available to all Order members. Anyone left was sold to the highest bidder. The girls kept for the Oder and Besh were all either sirens or undines, bound by magic so they could only obey their masters.

Spy had lost his wife, his daughters, his entire family to the Order. Seeking revenge, he had joined up. When he realized the extent of their crimes, he had a new goal.

Bring down the Order and all of its allies.

The current war was a perfect opportunity. By allowing the guardians of Onyx to obtain certain information, he could help insure victory. Already Ryuichi had been compromised. His ultimate goal was to see Besh punished for what he had done to his little girl. To so many little girls and young women. God, how he hated the Order.

The final stage of his plan was unfolding. All he had to do was insure that Ryuichi struck now, and that Battousai was aware of where and when the attack would be. All he had to do then was watch the massacre unfold.

Carefully, he wrote in a thin, fine hand on the stolen paper.

_Guardians of Gem City,_

_You do not know me, but I know you. I am Spy, and we have a common enemy. I have tried to help you up til now, but soon the Order will have me killed. There is very little time. _

_The Order stole my life from me. Now I return the favor._

_Enclosed are the fruits of a long labor, enough information to seal the Order's fate._

_You do not know me, but I know you, and I know that as long as the Order is slain soon, I can die in peace with my head held high..._

_Spy_

Placing the letter in a mailbox, with no return address, he knew that when he returned, death would be waiting.

It didn't matter.

'_For my wife and children, for my aunts and grandmothers and sisters, for my mother, I would do anything...death is nothing compared to what they have endured...'_

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"Idiot. You might want to read this."

"Read what, Shishou?"

"This letter. Addressed to the guardians of Gem City."

"Give me that. Where did you find it?"

"Someone mailed it to me."

"No return address, obviously."

"Just read it."

"This explains a lot of things...Aoshi's strangling curtains. Misao's phone call. The fact that an ambulance just happened to arrive at the right time for Tokio."

"What will you do now? Go out and kill Ryuichi?"

"On his terms? I don't think so. I'll lay some precautions around the attack site and proceed as though I know nothing. If this is planned correctly, and Shishio does what I think he'll do...we should be able to contain this so the majority of the population doesn't get involved..."

"And your woman? She won't let you just walk into a trap."

"There's no choice. I'm not going to let her endanger herself for my sake, or her sake. She'll have to be somewhere safe."

"You know perfectly well, idiot, that your woman will insist on fighting. You don't think she can care for herself?"

"I'll discuss that with her."

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"So, let me get this straight. A bunch of zombies, plus the Window-Walker, plus Shishio's finest are going to attack us. You, and your friends, are going out to fight them. And you actually expect met to stay behind and wait like a good little wife?"

Megumi stopped, pausing to breathe. She turned to Misao, and Kaoru, who were sitting next to her, with identical pissed expressions.

Kaoru agreed. "None of us are useless...except maybe Misao."

"Hey! I'm not useless! I've had my ninja training!"

"How many real fights have you been in, Misao?" Kaoru asked. "Against people with weapons who weren't drunk?"

"Plenty until the Oniwabanshuu dumped me." Misao snarled at her. "What about you?"

"I worked with a rogue vampire hunting team for a while back in college, and again two years ago." Kaoru said.

"Look, I understand that I am a pregnant, puny human, but I have to do something. I can't just sit and wait, hoping you'll come back alive, can I? Could you?" Megumi pleaded. She reached out toward Sano, looking despairingly tragic.

"Look I'll leave you with a monitor you can see what's going on. But it's to unsafe with the baby." Sano insisted. "Trust me on this one, okay?"

"Fine." Megumi muttered, refusing to meet his eyes.

"What about the rest of us? We're not pregnant, and we're experienced." Kaoru protested.

"That doesn't mean it's any safer. If anything happens to you-" Kenshin began.

"If anything happens to you, I will be extremely upset." Kaoru interrupted. "I'd rather do something instead of sitting and worrying. Besides, it's better that I be out there. It's a lot harder to attack someone in the middle of the city than in a lonely apartment."

"And I am definitely going. It's my city too." Misao declared.

"No." Aoshi replied. "you will stay here."

"No, I won't! Besides, I'm not one of your subordinates anymore, remember? There's no reason for you to stop me. You can't. I'm going."

"No." Aoshi said coldly.

While this argument was going on, Kaoru was still attempting to persuade Kenshin that she could handle herself.

"You're going to go fight an even more homicidal maniac than yourself! Because of me! At least let me do something!"

"The Order's attacks aren't your fault. If I don't fight their pet assassin, who will?"

"I'm not saying you shouldn't fight? I'm saying let me fight!"

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Waiting in the alleyway outside a bowling alley, Ryuichi waited. His superiors had ordered him not to attack Battousai, saying something about a leak, he hadn't really listened. Soon, Koru would be free, free to wed him and be his forever. All he had to do was kill the murderer. What was the phrase his superior had used when giving him the job? Divine justice. Yes, it was divine justice indeed. Under the white, cloudy skies and the tall stone buildings, he lurked. Battousai would come, and meet his doom.

The picture of Kaoru, of her smiling and turning, was tucked into his shirt. He had had it enlarged, so it could cover his chest. Like armor, Kaoru's forbidden love for him would protect him.

At the other end of the block, Kenshin also waited. He couldn't go into a confrontation with the false Ryuichi until he got word from the others that the other battle were ending, or over. If something big happened, he would deal with that first. Time was on their side now; just as he had thought, Ryuichi was already there despite the Order's command to cease. Shishio was till launching his attack, as planned, but with a different strike center: Viper. Again, he'd predicted that and sent some people to handle that.

Kaoru, Misao, and a few others were taking refuge in the Aoiya. Shishio's Ten Swords were going to probably attack there, but Kaoru had laid what she called the Circle of the Goddess around the Aoiya with purified holy water. She had explained that only those with good intentions could pass through. If they could shelter there, they wouldn't have to fight anyone. Just in case, Kenshin had convinced his master to help them out if need be.

The stage was set. All they needed now was for the rest of the players to arrive, and the curtain would rise...

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The Ten Swords of Shishio were preparing for battle. All ten of them weren't going to the Aoiya; some of them had remained with Shishio at their hideout. The ones that had come were confident in their ability to handle the current inhabitants of the inn; an imp, a siren, and a few others. No problem; plenty of time left to enjoy themselves before they went into battle.

However, as insurance, they had brought along a gift from the Order's leader, Besh. He had handed over his newest servant girl, a little sprite named Tsubame, as a hostage.

"Woman," Shishio had said. "Are weak. Their sentimental hearts will cause them to surrender if you so much as scratch this one."

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"We're off." Okon and the other three Oniwabanshuu members said. "Don't leave the Aoiya!"

As they hurried out to fulfill their roles in the coming battle, Kaoru, Misao and Yahiko watched them go. They had been explicitly ordered to not leave the protective circle of the Aoiya. Not that either of them planned to wait inside if a battle opportunity presented it self.

"Men." Misao muttered. "Let's do something, Kaoru!"

Kaoru nodded. "Let's look at the Ten Swords profiles they left us. We might as well familiarize ourselves with the enemy."

The two girls and the boy went in and sat down near the window, reading though the files.

"So, we have...Kamatari?" Misao exclaimed. "Since when did Kamatari join crazed zombies in their quests to rule the world?"

"Let me see!" Kaoru said, grabbing the manila folder out of Misao's hands. She read it quickly, eyes darting over the page.

"We have this blind guy, this guy in a puppet, this old guy who works with a giant, a flying bat-person, this Tenken person, a monk, an organizer, a swords-thief, and a cross-dresser. Who's the tenth sword?"

Misao took the folders from Yahiko's hand and began reviewing them herself, answering him in a bored way. "They asked Aoshi to join, but he declined. They couldn't find a tenth sword."

Kaoru looked confused. "So why didn't they call it the Nine Swords?"

"Ten is a cooler number." Yahiko insisted. "Who are we gonna end up fighting?"

Misao and Kaoru exchanged glances before going back to their reading.

"Henya, Kamatari, Iwanbo, and Fuji." She pronounced. "Tenken is supposed to be faster than Kenshin. They'll send him to fight him. Usui is supposed to be second best, so he'll end up with Saitou. I think, I've never done this kind of thing before...but none of them are vampires, at least."

Misao agreed. "Sano will end up with the monk. It says here they use the same technique."

A sudden banging outside their window alerted them to presence of visitors. Glancing out side, they saw that the buildings around them were being attacked. Debris was bouncing off the dome of power Kaoru had erected around the Aoiya, but the streets were being littered with glass and stone. At least the civilians had been evacuated. Grabbing their weapons, the three went outside, despite Kaoru's attempt to keep Yahiko inside.

Just as the three had guessed, Henya, Kamatari, and Fuji were waiting amongst a crowd of men in uniforms emblazoned with Shishio's seal. Iwanbo was nowhere to be seen, however.

"So, here we are." Kaoru said, careful to keep herself behind the line of the circle. They couldn't let the Ten Swords rampage all over the city, not when there were still civilians in some areas. Besides, Shishio's men weren't here by accident. They wanted a fight, and the three were going to give them one.

Kamatari spoke. "Kaoru, Misao. How nice to see you. What did you think of my new fashion line?"

Kaoru stared at him, lips moving silently. Singing at a magical frequency that no one else could hear, she probed Kamatari's mind and soul. What she found relieved her; he was being controlled by someone else. Probably the Order; they seemed to like mind manipulation techniques.

"It was nice, Kamatari, but we're not here to talk about fashion." Misao said. "You want a fight, I suppose?"

"Exactly." Henya joined the conversation. "We are being wasted on you weaklings, so we might as well enjoy ourselves."

"Who are you calling a weakling?" Yahiko asked angrily. He stepped forward, to the very edge of the circle. Unsheathing his bokken, he yelled back.

"I am Yahiko Myojin! And I challenge you!"

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"You cannot win." Saitsuchi, an old man with a freakishly large head and an odd mustache, said from his perch atop Fuji's shoulder. "Shall I explain to you why?"

Things were looking bad. Kaoru, Misao, and Yahiko were injured; Yahiko was unconscious, and Misao had broken ribs. Their circle had been broken by the dynamite of Henya's, and only Kaoru, with a gi that only covered one side of her chest and revealed the bandaging underneath, and with cuts, bruises, and exhaustion (not to mention no weapon) was left to fight. Even so, she bared her teeth and answered.

"Don't underestimate me because I don't look like I can take you!"

"You believe that you can win. There are several reasons why that is impossible. First, you think that Battousai will come and help you."

"No, I don't. He has to go kill the Window-Walker, moron. Besides, I'm supposed to be a good little girlfriend and wait in the circle."

Saitsuchi continued on, only momentarily stymied. "You believe that your strength is equal to mine. Two of your comrades are too wounded to join you."

"I'm more than enough to take you on." Kaoru replied. "Was there more?"

"Third, you underestimate the Hagan. There is no way you can defeat him. Observe!"

The great, armored giant moved, more gracefully then Kaoru would have ever guessed he could. He lifted his huge sword. For a moment everything was still, the sun glinting off of the shining sword. Then he struck.

_BAM!_

A nearby building was gone, reduced to rubble and trash. The stones were smashed into the ground, leaving a crater; the glass from the windows spread over the ruins like diamonds. The sparkling destruction was a testament to the huge man's strength.

"You have no chance!" Saitsuchi yelled gleefully. "You will die!"

Kaoru planted her feet, inwardly reviewing all the training she'd had in self-defense- not just the Kamiya-Kasshin Ryu, but also a variety of siren-style hand-to-hand combat forms, designed for a species that fought in both water and air, and utilized flowing, wide movements.

"Bring it." She challenged, determined not to show fear to this freak. He was already underestimating her. No amount of armor could defend you against sound. The trick would b to not get hit by that sword. How fast was this guy?

They took her words to heart and attacked furiously. The Aoiya was the first thing destroyed, and Kaoru had to fling herself onto Yahiko and Misao to keep them from being crushed by falling debris. Rolling onto her back and wincing as Misao's knee poked her, she let out an earsplitting shriek that shattered the gravity-propelled wooden and shingles descending towards them. She could feel herself slipping into what sirens called the hearing state, the time when a siren fully utilized the amazing power of their ears. She could hear Saitsuchi's heart rate rising, could hear his breath catch the tiniest bit, and felt a pang of satisfaction.

Stepping over the pieces of the Aoiya on the ground, she approached Fuji again. His armor was hindering him just the slightest bit, a fact she was grateful for. It was hard enough dodging him already. Those bruises were going to hurt later on, but the adrenalin rush was preventing her from feeling the pain for now.

"Attack!" Saitsuchi roared, urging Fuji on.

The giant struck, again and again, trying to injure Kaoru. He was aiming her neck now, obviously hoping to silence her song.

Because Kaoru was attacking as well- in bursts of sound that had enough force to throw Fuji back if he came too near. She didn't think ice would be enough to hold him, so she didn't draw on her natural ability to direct water; instead she used what was called physical sound on him.

A glancing blow slammed the ground, and Kaoru was knocked to her knees by the force of it. Fuji was changing tactics? Fine. So would she.

Wit another scream, she shattered his weapon. The sound of it hurt Fuji's ears- he clutched them and she could see blood pouring down his neck. So he was weak to sounds at that frequency. If she could figure out what range of sounds could harm him, Kaoru might be able to knock him out without hurting him further. Somehow she doubted Saitsuchi was a threat.

Fuji immediately started taking off his armor, having decided to use hand-to-hand combat to settle this. Kaoru considered her options. She couldn't stand up to him physically, but she could repel him. Still, his skull seemed to be thick enough to withstand that. This was starting to look too much like a stalemate for her liking.

Acting fast, she blocked his next punch with a shield of "diamond ice" and cut at him with it, not intending to hit him, only drive him back. A shallow lone of blood opened on his fist, and she drove him back further with an enormous, spiky tentacle of ice that she pulled from groundwater.

'_I have to at least cripple him, but his sheer size makes anything I try either too weak or too dangerous...'_

Their dance continued; a giant trying to catch a ant; albeit an ant with something more dangerous than a stinging bite.

Trying to avoid a vicious kick, she fled into the remains of the Aoiya. Sliding beneath a sort of hut that had been formed by a boards landing flat on a pile of rocks, she fund an undamaged (miraculously) weapons rack. The only weapon that interested her was the bokken there; a little large for her, but now she had an idea.

Holding the wooden sword out in front of her, she drew an enormous ball of ice up behind her. If she could get on really hard hit to the back of his head, just above the neck, she might be able to take him down. Straightening her sore back, she waited.

'_Come on...attack me...'_

Just as she had hoped, he came straight at her, hands outstretched to grasp her. She swung at him, hard, using the motion of the bokken to direct the ice. It connected with his head just as he passed her. With a crack, it hit higher than she had wanted it to, but doing its purpose all the same. He fell, facedown, onto the ground, and blood was visible streaming in thin rivulets through his long hair. Kaoru quickly gave him a once-over after climbing onto his shoulder, and satisfied that he was going to be fine, she put him under a magical sleep for a while.

She was about to return to the waiting Misao and Yahiko when she heard something. A laugh, happy yet frightening, as though the source of the laughter was something that wasn't funny. It wasn't coming from anyone in the vicinity; it came from far, far away. Engrossed so deeply in the information coming through her ears, she heard it even though it was in a dark alley across the city.

It was the false Ryuichi's laugh, and she ran, suddenly unable to face the idea of Kenshin facing Ryuichi alone.

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It was time. He had seen Shishio's soldiers fleeing from the shadows and from their terrified babbling gleaned the results of the ending battle. The attack on the Aoiya had failed; despite his and Aoshi's demands, the two girls and Yahiko had fought anyways. Everything was going as planned; no one of Shishio's plans to raze the city had succeeded.

The only loose end was the false Ryuichi. Or, as Spy had revealed, Jineh.

Striding around the corner, he went into the alley, opening the spells that would temporarily seal it off from the outside world. The alley would not exist; would not be visible. Jineh's death would be witnessed by Kenshin alone.

The alley was a dirty, grungy place, with only a rusty trashcan that had been empty for to long in one corner. There was a fire escape against the back wall, presumably where Jineh was hiding. It, too, was rusty, and was covered partially by a plastic tarp.

There was the sound of laughter, and slowly the folding metal staircase unfolded, Jineh coming down it. He was wearing a suit, and carrying a suitcase. Seeing Kenshin's inquiring glance towards it, he smiled even wider.

"Wedding clothes for my Kaoru." Jineh explained. "So we can get married after you die." He felt a cold thread of rage at the idea of Kaoru belonging to Jineh. He could still see the expression on her face when she'd dragged herself through his window.

Jineh would never, never have Kaoru. Not while he was alive.

He was wary now, waiting for the inevitable attack on his mind. Neither of them could utilize a bond against each other. All they could do was battle it out until one of them caved.

Jineh tensed and he knew, instinctively, that th fight had began.

_Pain- pressure- a vice was closing around his mind and crushing it-_

_A snake was twined with his inner self and devouring it- but he too was a dragon, burning at the snake-_

_Pain and hurt and memories he would rather forget and yet needed like air- silver slash of a sword and snow stained red, so very red- a familiar scene and he had made it happen-_

There was a distant pull at his side and then everything stopped. He was suddenly himself again. The reason why was apparent immediately.

There was a sword protruding from his chest. Great, Ryuichi had killed him. Shishou was going to rag on him forever about- someone was crying.

He glanced behind him and saw the last person he had expected on her knees. Kaoru.

Her face was that blanched white color he had come to associate with horror and fear, and she was trembling.

He looked away. There would be plenty of time for explanations later.

Jineh was laughing, but his good humor vanished abruptly when he saw Kenshin still standing and drawing the blade from his chest with ease.

"You'll have to do better than that." Kenshin told him, advancing on the killer. Jineh took a step back and spoke for the first time with out confidence or madness. He was trying to attack Kenshin's mind again, but nothing was happening.

"A corpse has no mind." Kenshin said softly, in a cold voice that frightened Kaoru far more than the bloody wound she could see on his back where he'd been run through.

"A corpse feels no pain, and no wound you can inflict will stop me from killing you..." Kenshin let Jineh absorb this dreadful knowledge, the knowledge of his own demise. And then he gutted him.

Jineh exploded, a great wave of blood striking Kenshin from the front. He stiffened at the familiar felling of warm liquid covering him, running over his hands like water from a faucet. Behind him, Kaoru waited for a response, an acknowledgement. From her vantage point, she couldn't see the blood.

But Kenshin could feel it. It soaked into every inch of his clothing, and covered him like a second sin. His bangs were plastered to his forehead by it, and it pooled at his feet and soaked his socks. His face was the worst- the scent permeated the air around him, clogging his breath, and the metallic flavor invaded his mouth. He couldn't see for a moment, and there was no blood-free surface to wipe his eyes with.

And worst of all, he knew this feeling an there was a distant, small, monstrous part of him that liked it- that recalled fondly memories of the days when it had always rained blood...

His horrified reverie was broken by a voice.

"Kenshin? Are you alright? There's a hole in your..." She let her words hang. Somehow she couldn't bring herself to admit that Kenshin was dead, and he was; she could no longer hear a heartbeat, even though there was faint breathing. The sound of dripping puzzled her: what could be dripping, unless his sword...or maybe the wound in his heart...

She came forward, trying to walk steadily and failing. She was only inches from him when he turned to face her.

What she saw was eerily similar to legends of rogue vampires she'd read as a teenager. A figure, clutching a bloodied sword and drenched in the souvenirs of battle. It was one thing to know that a man killed, and another to see someone you liked- someone you cared for- gut a man without any hesitation. But when she saw his eyes, she came closer still. Those were not the eyes of a bloodthirsty monster.

They were eyes that had seen too much.

"Kaoru...why are you...?" he didn't finish, waiting for her to run, or scream, or show some sign she recognized that he was soaked in blood.

"I came to look for you...I didn't like the idea of you...fighting him...so I came to see...are you alright? There's so much blood." She willed him to understand that she need his reassurance, need him to say that he was fine, or at least tell her what was wrong.

"I'm fine. It isn't my blood...Jineh; he exploded when I killed him..."

What else was there to say? The two walked to the entrance and waited, unsure how to leave. Staring at the oblivious world beyond them, Kaoru felt afraid. When had her world spun so utterly out of her control?

"Frightening, isn't it?" Kenshin said quietly. "To be apart from everyone else..."

'_You would know...'_ Kaoru shivered. _'Am I apart too?'_

"No." She turned to look at him again, wiping his eyes with her sleeve. "We're not apart...we're together. And we have all our friends too."

And then she embraced him, despite the blood, despite the fact he was a dead body.

Kaoru felt something at the absence of his heartbeat, but ignored it. Later, he would answer her questions. For now, it was enough. Enough that she held him.

Above them, thunder boomed and lightning cracked, lighting the sky and echoing through the streets. The grey, sad clouds opened, and a cleansing, pure rain fell, wiping the blood from the stones, from his clothes and skin, leaving them as though the battle had never occurred.

And the heavens cried, for joy or for sorrow, they knew not.

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She awoke to an empty bed. The early yellow light of the clock told her it was midnight. The shine of the moon outside was so bright that it seemed a silver sun, come to turn night to day.

Rising from the bed, Kaoru left the blankets in an untidy heap as she left the room. It was silent in the hallway as she quietly tiptoed down to the living room.

As she had suspected, Kenshin was there, sleeping upright against a wall with a sword in hand. His sleep, if he even was asleep, seemed troubled, as though his dreams were haunted by the blood that had figured so prominently in his life. It pained her to think that his nights might always be moonless and dark with blood, no matter how bright the moon was. It hurt to think that his dreams might always be nightmares of past memories. It saddened her to think that he would never sleep without the burden of sin oppressing his slumber.

She knelt down beside him, slowly. Taking his free hand, she whispered, "If you're going to have me live in your house, you should at least keep me warm at night."

His eyes opened too quickly, with no hint of drowsiness impeding his alertness. So he hadn't been sleeping, or his nightmares had been so terrible that he was eager to escape whatever had plagued his dreams that night. Looking at her with clear amber eyes, he said nothing. She squeezed his hand, leaning on his shoulder.

"Come to bed, Kenshin." She said, still speaking softly. "It's cold without you there."

"Are you leaving?" He asked abruptly.

"If I do, will you be sad?" She asked him. That surprised him. Of all the questions to ask...

"Yes, but..." He began. She cut him off as he felt her lips touch his forehead.

"Then I'm staying." She told him, honesty radiating from her eyes. They didn't speak, only stared at each other for a few long moments, illuminated by the full moon that shone through a gap in the curtains.

"Good." He whispered, standing. She followed suit, taking his hand again. He led her back into the bedroom in comfortable silence.

Behind them, the door clicked shut.

_Silver sun, you make skies so bright_

_Is it day or is it night?_

_I cannot tell between the two_

_It matters not when I'm with you..._

_Walk with me across the grass_

_Watch with me as time goes past_

_Hold my hand as sun and moon _

_Dance from midnight to high noon_

_As the rivers of our lives_

_Flow through worlds deprived_

_Will our two streams converge?_

_Can our separate paths merge?_

_You will never know_

_I will never know_

_Unless we try, time and time again_

_Unless we cry, in our lover's glen_

_Together we will know the answer_

_Hold fast to your course towards me_

_I will rush down the mountain for you_

_Be with me_

_Whether night or day_

_Silver or gold struck skies_

_Whether or not we see stars. It doesn't matter_

_I'll be your star, and you'll be my star_

_Be with me_

_And icy mountain streams _

_With rushing desert rivers_

_Will be in perfect harmony_

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**Here's chapter four...God I slaved over this. I bled and sweat for this one. The last scene was actually the part I wrote first; then I wrote the beginning. The fight between Kaoru and Fuji/Saitsuchi was the hardest part. And yet it still sucked...if anyone has ideas for improved that one, evil scene...I'd really love to hear them. I really love the last bit though...And yes, I wrote the poem/lullaby at the end myself. **


	5. Mustard Popcorn and Foaming Mouths

_Third Impressions_

_Part V_

She wasn't sure what had caused her cold (sirens were an underwater species! Standing out in the rain was nothing!). But it was very, very irritating.

She awoken the day after the battle and found herself unable to go longer than a few minutes without sneezing. Her nose was red, she felt congested, and she couldn't taste anything, including coffee. Kenshin had taken one look at her and called her in sick, despite her protests. She'd been put on strict bed-rest and fed a variety of hot liquids, including but not limited to several types of tea, coffee, soup, and medicine.

"I'm not an invalid!" Kaoru snapped after the third day of her torture. (Some would have called it being pampered beyond all reason, but Kaoru wasn't that type of person.)

"Of course not." Kenshin said soothingly, handing her another cup of tea, putting a fresh box of tissues within reach, and discreetly kicking her bokken under the bed where she couldn't use it to hurt him or Yahiko, who was staying with them temporarily.

"Then why am I stuck here lying in bed and drinking god-forsaken tea?" Kaoru asked reaching for her bokken and finding it missing. Frowning, she checked the mountains of blankets surrounding her and under the twenty or so pillows behind her.

"I'm not that cold, Kenshin." She said with a sigh. "Captured by my own bedding! How am I supposed to escape now?"

"You're not. That's the point." He told her, making a mental note to remove the bokken to a safer, less obvious, and preferably locked place before she decided to take her frustrations out on innocent souls like Yahiko, or less innocent souls like himself.

"Great. I'm trapped in the forest of bedding. Oh, the horror." She muttered sarcastically. "Who knows what horrible fate lies in wait for me? Maybe the pillows will eat me!"

"If you're not careful, I might." Kenshin replied, putting yet another blanket over her. That made about thirty. If she tried to kill him, he'd have plenty of advanced warning. Unless she had a knife hidden in there somewhere...not that he'd supplied her with anything sharp. Maybe he should go and make her soup or something instead of antagonizing her.

"Hey! Ugly! Phone for you!" A cell came flying through the escape route, also called the open door. It landed with a plunk on Kaoru's lap, its fall cushioned by the blankets. She flipped it pen, recognizing the phone as her work number.

"Hello?" She said, wincing at the sound of her voice. She sounded awful.

"Hi! Like, this is, like, Shaista! And you're, like, not here, at the, like, shoot! Like I need, like, to have my picture, like, taken, so I can, like, get money for, like, clothes? So, like, get over, like, here? Like, now? Please?"

Kaoru mouthed, "It's Shaista." at Kenshin's curious glance and then told the model, "Sorry, Shaista, but I'm sick. I can't be there. Besides, I've been promoted. I have to do Bunny's shoot with Kamatari and Usuda. One of the junior photographers will work with you for your shoot. Bye!" She closed the phone and laid it on top of the tissue box.

"What did she want?" Kenshin asked.

"Nothing. No one told her I was promoted to senior photographer, so she was waiting for me to show up." Kaoru said, gulping down her tea and making a face at the tastelessness of it.

"Can you get me my computer? I have to work on touch-ups and stuff. For PUC."

Kenshin left the room and returned with her work bag. "Here."

"Thanks." She said, turning it on.

"What were you saying you needed it for?" Kenshin asked.

"PUC. Photo Union Convention. It's this thing- all the major companies that do photography, they send an employee, on a commission, to represent them. It's good advertising. The more commissions one photographer has, the better. One is the norm; no one has ever had more then three of them. I have to compete with the other two senior photographers with the commission this year. Clients sometimes like your work enough to ask you to commission for them, but not usually. Only really top-grade photographers, the ones that do really high-class free-lance work- I mean they can pick an choose because they're in demands- get commissions from lots of people."

"And you want to go to the Convention?" He sat down on the bed next to her.

"Yeah! I mean...going to Convention is a big deal. If you're there, you can advertise yourself. People get job offers, or free equipment- all kinds of stuff. And if some, say, really famous fashion icon likes something, she'll request you. If people request you enough, you don't even need a company, you can just take temp contracts." Kaoru explained. "If I was that famous, I could do a lot of stuff."

"Stuff?" Kenshin asked.

Kaoru nodded, faintly embarrassed. "I want to reopen the dojo, but to do that I have to either have a job with fixed hours, or I have to be famous and in demand enough to make things fit my schedule."

Kenshin thought about this for a while. "Why did you close the dojo?"

"The Order sort of shoved me into it." She admitted. "Why are you a consultant?"

"Why? There's a rule regarding cover jobs. They have to match your real job in output."

"Which means...?"

"Look at it this way. The results of policing nonhumans are power and money. A successful consultant has the same results. Therefore, no one would ever be suspicious if they decided to examine my assets. They'd see money, which I get from rich clients, and reputation, which I get from rich clients."

"And the fact that said rich clients tend to die?" Kaoru asked with an arched brow.

He laughed wrapped an arm around her. "Occupational hazard."

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"Who know what today is?" Misao asked.

"Bad Romantic Movie day!" the three girls said. Tokio looked baffled at their display. Picking up her cup of fruit juice, she asked a question.

"What's Bad Romantic Movie day?"

The girls all drank their respective drinks before Kaoru answered.

"It's a tradition, of sorts. We all meet with our significant other of the moment once a year and we invite them to come watch a movie with us. The movie is always romantic and awful. It's a way of measuring the strength of the relationship."

"And they agree to this?" Tokio asked incredulously. She adjusted the ribbons on her spiky, multicolored pigtails.

"Oh, we don't tell them anything. It's all very casual." Megumi assured her.

Misao sighed. "And I have no significant other, so I'm...alone..." She slumped over the table like a dead woman, silent. Kaoru poked her and got no response. Shrugging, she went and got a glass of ice water and proceeded to dump it over Misao's head.

"Eek! Kaoru, that's cold!" Misao yelled, frantically wringing out her bangs.

"Yes, I know." Kaoru assured her. "I even put ice in, just for you."

While the two squabbled, Megumi showed Tokio a stack of the latest, sappiest hits in their collection. Tokio chose the latest true-love-despite-arranged-marriage film and began reading the summary on the back.

Megumi meanwhile picked out a love-hate-between-rival-companies movie and followed suit. Realizing that all the good ones were being snapped up, Misao and Kaoru attacked the pile as well. Soon, all four were eagerly reading movie summaries.

In the end, Megumi and Tokio went with the movies they'd originally chosen and Kaoru and Misao both picked out modern-day-Romeo-and-Juliet pictures.

"I guess I'll watch by myself..." Misao said sadly. "It's so weird! Normally Kaoru is the one without a boyfriend!"

"It's your fault I have one." Kaoru reminded her.

Misao nodded miserably, and hugged Tokio randomly. "I'm glad you're joining us! It makes me feel all squishy!"

Tokio pried Misao off her and nodded. "Me too, Misao, me too. I also feel the squishy nature of our blooming friendship."

There was a silence, and then all four friends burst out laughing.

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"Mustard popcorn!" Sano declared, running towards the microwave before Megumi could stop him.

"Butter!" he heard her yell from the living room. Too late! He would definitely get his mustard popcorn this time, as soon as he opened the microwave...the microwave that wasn't in the kitchen...the microwave that had left a wide gap on the counter...

"Like I said, Sano, butter popcorn." Megumi said, smirking.

"Megumi..."He whined, defeated. "What did you do to the microwave?"

"I moved it temporarily to the balcony." Megumi told him. "It will return, safely, if you behave. If you can't, the microwave will take a downhill trip into the street."

"Evil microwave stealing fox..." Sano mumbled as he sat down in front of the TV. "What are we watching?"

"This movie." Megumi held up the box. It featured two people singing loudly in sequined suits in what appeared to be a circus. There were clowns in low-cut dresses and horses draped in fabric, and the title was written on an elephant in glitter. Sano gulped.

"Rival Circus Lovers." Megumi said. "It was a recommendation from a friend. I thought we could spend time together watching it."

"Rival...Circus...Lovers?" Sano managed. "Who writes this stuff?"

"It's supposed to be a thoughtful and heartwarming love story for everyone." Megumi snapped, snatching the case from his hand. She loaded the DVD into the DVD player and grabbed the remote from Sano. Sitting back against the couch, she laughed inwardly at the look on Sano's face at the opening scene of the movie. This was going to be fun.

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"You're home early." Kaoru commented as Kenshin walked back in through the door. "I thought were going to be late tonight."

he smiled at her. "I took the night off. They'll survive without me."

"I hope so." She motioned to the ground beside her, in the space that wasn't occupied by a giant bowl of buttery popcorn and a bottle of water. "Come and watch this movie with me. A friend recommended it to me."

"What movie is it?" Kenshin asked as he hung his coat up in the coat closet. He then picked up Kaoru's coat off of the closet floor and hung that up, too, in an accusatory fashion.

"Secretary In A Brown Suit, Three Sizes Too Big." Kaoru showed him the cover; it displayed a crowd of laughing, scantily dressed people in a flashing club. In the center, behind the title, there was a woman with a bun, glasses, and a browns suit that was, indeed, far too large. She was smiling and holding a finger to her lips. There was nothing secretary-like about her-the bun was perfectly messy and the glasses were a bright, soul-searing pink.

"Who recommended that to you?"

"Why?"

"It looks...never mind."

"Never mind what?" Kaoru asked, grabbing onto his arm. He looked away and prepared to duck.

"It looks like those videos they show you to warn against drug dealers." He told her.

Sure enough, she tried and failed to hit him.

"We are going to watch this movie. Now shut up and eat your popcorn."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Shut up!"

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Tokio was nervous. Unlike the other three, she'd never done anything with her spouse. They'd gone from meeting once every few months to living in the little Spartan apartment, and it was a big change. Tokio had had to adjust to her husband's obsession with soba, and the faint smell of cigarette smoke everywhere, and the terrified employees that skulked in and out and called at all hours. She was slowly adjusting to the way he neatened up her carefully messy closet randomly, although she did draw the line at the bare white apartment- as soon as he left for work, she'd run out and get supplies. She was in the process of making cute little decorative pieces to display everywhere. The furniture had been upholstered, and most importantly the walls were now a warm yellow color.

He hadn't liked that, complaining about "flowery female décor" but she knew that if it really bothered him, he wouldn't have let her get away with it.

Before he got home, she'd made dinner (soba, of course) and put fluffy pillows in the living room, and of course checked to make sure there was popcorn. Now all she had to do was propose her idea.

"So." She said, watching him eat his noodles. "I have this movie."

"Movie?" he asked, eyeing her unfinished noodles. She pushed the bowl towards him, too nervous to eat.

"Yeah, a friend recommended it to me. We should watch it together, don't you think? It would be...bonding."

"Binding." He repeated.

Tokio felt a stir if impatience. "It's either this or couple's therapy."

"Fine. What's the movie?" He was glaring, but at least she'd wormed him into it.

"It's about these exotic dancers from different rival families who want to get married but can't." She told him excitedly. "It's so supposed to be really well-written."

"Porn for the masses."

"So we're going for couple's therapy?"

Saitou gulped. He didn't scare easily, but the maniacal glint in his wife's eyes frightened him more than any of his enemies ever had.

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The next day, the four girls met in a bookstore. Drinking coffee and reading magazines, they shared the details of Bad Romantic Movie Day.

"Okay, so did everyone convince their significant other to watch the movie, despite their misgivings?" Megumi asked. "Kaoru, your idea about the microwave worked, by the way. No mustard-flavored popcorn."

"Great." Kaoru said, laughing at the image of Sano's face when Megumi had threatened to smash the microwave. "Yeah, I got Kenshin to watch with me. He said that the movie reminded him of a documentary about drug dealers. I feel it was more a documentary on sexual exploitation, myself."

"I threatened Hajime with couple's therapy. He gave in." Tokio said with a self-satisfied smile. "He was right, too- that movie was porn. And sucky porn, too. I mean, if you're going to make porn, at least do it right."

Misao was quiet. She'd been white and blank the whole time, and hadn't said a word about anything to anyone sine they'd arrived.

"Misao, are you with us?" Kaoru asked.

"Of course! Why wouldn't I be?" Misao replied cheerfully. Megumi raised an eyebrow at her.

"Then why are you reading a men's magazine?"

"Um...um...IwenttoseeAoshiandwatchamovieandIaccidentallytoldhimIlovedhim...andthenIranaway." She babbled at top speed.

"What?" The other three said simultaneously.

"Wait- you accidentally told him you loved him?" Kaoru, who'd been interpreting Misao's babble since grade school, was the first to comprehend her words. Megumi was choking on her drink in the background, and Tokio was still confused.

"Yes! He asked me why I was there and then I said that when you loved someone for such a long time you couldn't just stop and then he kind of stared at me and then I ran away!" Misao burst into tears and began sobbing loudly.

Kaoru put her arms around her friend, and Megumi and Tokio joined her, paying no heed to the throngs of staring people around them, unnerved by the public spectacle.

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Meanwhile, the victims of Bad Romantic Movie Day were lurking in Sano's office. They weren't drinking but eating Chinese food that Kenshin had dragged from his car. Seated around the desk which was laid out with the food, they discussed the horrors of bad film.

"So, all of us were forced to watch weird movies?" Sano said incredulously. "Weird coincidence."

"It's hardly coincidence, idiot." Saitou said. He lit a cigarette, despite the no smoking sign hanging on his right in loud, fluorescent lettering. Sano grit his teeth and started to speak, but Kenshin cut him off.

"We should do something about this."

"Like what?" Sano asked, distracted from Saitou's antagonizing.

Kenshin didn't answer, glancing at Aoshi, who was lent as usual. It took a moment before he realized what was wrong. The cup of green tea before him was full to the brim, undrunk.

"Something wrong, Aoshi?" He asked.

"Misao said that she loved me." He replied. "When she came over with the movie."

"What did you say to her?" Kenshin asked.

"Nothing, She ran away."

"And you let her run away?" Sano yelled. "You idiot!" The rooster-headed man had had much experience with women (namely Megumi) running away from him in shock and/or anger.

"I couldn't stop her." Aoshi said.

"What do you mean, you couldn't stop her? You're a soul-eating ninja!"

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When he came home that night, alter then he had anticipated, he found a box of donuts sitting n the table. Chocolate, glazed, fresh and hot donuts that smelled good. Donuts that he had definitely not bought and eaten half of. That left Yahiko, who was staying with a friend and whose guard's shift mix-up had been the source of his lateness, or Kaoru. Kaoru liked donuts, as he recalled; in fact, she seemed to nurse a fondness for sugary baked goods of an unhealthy manner.

Following a small, indiscernible trail of crumbs, he found her eating donuts in bed (he was going to have to wash those sheets or bugs would be everywhere, and h hated bugs) and watching TV.

"You would sell my soul for a cupcake, wouldn't you." He said, amused.

"Of course not, Kenshin." This answer surprised him; Kaoru was hardly ever sweet and nice.

"It would have to be a cupcake with icing." She specified. "Sugary icing."

"Forgive my grievous transgression." He told her. "What's the occasion for the donuts?"

"I got four commissions. Four. Usuda, Kamatari, RK Photo, and RK's rival, BT Photo. I just broke the record for most commissions. And I get to go and work in Australia. For three whole months. I'm going to visit my aunt in a siren colony." Kaoru replied, grinning hugely. "Isn't it great?"

"That's wonderful. Stop eating donuts in bed." He took the plate of donuts away, ignoring her protests, and moved them to the dresser, out of reach.

"You're no fun." She told him, pouting. He shrugged, sitting down next to her in bed. She grabbed his arm, using his shoulder as a pillow, and leaned on him. They watched the commercials and the food network for about an hour. Finally Kaoru grabbed the remote and turned the television off.

"Let's go for a drive." She told him. "Come on." She grabbed a sweater and began pulling it over her head.

Kenshin followed, noting how tense she seemed suddenly. They went down the stairs instead of taking the elevator, neither of them wanting to deal with the awkward silence it would bring. Staring down at the dark blue carpet, admiring absently the red specks decorating it, Kaoru couldn't help but second guess her split-second decision.

'_What am I doing? Why am I taking him...there? You've never let anyone else see this, Kaoru, so why him?'_

The answer was instinctive, coming from some wiser, deeper part of her.

Because he might be someone she could spend the rest of her life with, and no relationship would last built on lies.

They walked out of the lobby, underneath the chandeliers, and through the revolving door. Across the street was a parking complex, where their cars were parked. Kaoru went straight to her own car, climbing into the driver's seat and feeling a little better in the familiar surroundings.

They drove still silent as the moon, down a half-deserted highway and through a side road that cut through a forest. Beneath the trees, they couldn't even glimpse the sky, the glimmer of starlight darkened by the mass of branches and a thick cloud cover. It was spooky, and Kenshin took Kaoru's hand when he saw her shiver slightly.

"There." She pointed outside, to a hut by the side of the road. "The fortune-teller lived there. I saw her every time I went up this road..." her voice quavered and she let her sentence go unfinished. He understood, surely, that she didn't want to talk about Jineh and his short career as a serial-killer.

At the end of the winding road, there was a tall, white building. The sign in front of it was large, and lettered blackly across it were the words **Mayfield Moore Asylum.**

At last Kenshin realized where they were. The institution where Kaoru's biological father, who had gone insane after the death of his wife, the man who he was fairly certain had been the victim of very, very powerful mind control. He knew that in long-term cases like this, there was little or no chance of repairing the damage. But despite this haunting knowledge, he still didn't know exactly why she had brought him here, in the middle of the night.

"He keeps odd hours, so he's probably still awake." Kaoru said softly. She tugged at his hand. "Come on, isn't it a tradition to introduce your boyfriend to your father?"

She smiled weakly, but it didn't reach her eyes, and after a second she let the attempt at humor drop. Going through the double doors, they found themselves in a spacious lobby. The front desk was made of dark, polished wood, and the light fixtures were glassy and delicate looking for a medical facility. Even the woman at the desk was smiling and looking, if not quite happy to be there, not unwilling either. She recognized Kaoru immediately.

"Miss Kamiya. Your father is doing well, I hear." The nametag on her blouse read Patience. Under her name there was the word volunteer, in red lettering.

"I'm glad to hear that. The doctor's last reports said he had a cold. This is Kenshin, Maria. He's going in with me." Kaoru motioned to the man behind her. Maria neatly wrote their names in a guest sign-in book and checked their ID cards. Then she pointed out the appropriate ward to them and waved them off, smiling still.

"He's always getting moved around. It's...hard on the other patients, having him around. They can't get rid of him, and it's generous to isolate him, so they shuffle him around to keep anyone from getting too influenced by him." Her voice was flat, blank and cold now. If she pretended it was someone she didn't know, she could sound perfectly calm. It wouldn't help matters any if she ha a crying breakdown now.

Her father was his room. The nurse on duty led him into a visitor room not unlike the rooms used to admit visitors in jail, wit a thick glass wall between the couple and Koshijiro. As soon as he was inside his end of the room, the nurse backed out and locked the door behind her. It seemed he was a threat even to the staff around him.

"You spawn! You devil! Die, you fiend, DIE!" Mouth foaming, the crazed man through himself against the wall, practically biting as the glass. His screaming mouth was pressed against the barrier, his hands scrabbling at it, his feet kicking it. He kept falling down and standing up to rage against the glass again.

Kaoru just stood there, watching him with sadness. She could remember a time when this man had smiled, and laughed, and loved his little girl and his beautiful wife with all he had. No, he couldn't even look at her, Daddy's little girl, without going into a animalistic temper that lasted until she got out of the hospital. Out of his sight. Even when she wasn't there to cause his outbursts, he screamed and cursed and caused a ruckus about his hell-spawn wife and daughter. He couldn't stand the sight of young, pretty girls with Kaoru's coloring. He didn't even seem to have noticed Kenshin's presence.

"He's always like this. I can't even try and talk to him; he excites himself too much and starts biting and scratching himself in his frenzy."

"I'm sorry." Kenshin murmured, looking carefully at the spells on Koshijiro. As he had feared, it was permanent and irreversible. There was nothing he could do to help.

"It's magic, isn't it?" Kaoru said. "I came and checked myself. I read a little on mind control like this...there's nothing I can do...?"

"No." Kenshin said, embracing her so he wouldn't have to watch the hope flicker out and die in her eyes. "It's irreversible, unless the Order itself knows how. Once we breach their headquarters, we'll be able to find out."

She sobbed quietly for a few minutes, then let herself be led back out of the ward by the hand. She numbly stared at Kenshin from behind, not knowing what to say. Now he knew what her father was. What would he think? She'd never, ever, brought anyone else to see this, not even her foster father. It was too painful.

Outside, Kenshin leaned on the car, letting Kaoru cry into his shoulder.

'_For hurting her like his, I will never stop hunting the Order. Not until they're dead and gone from this world.'_

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**Short one, but there was some romance. No plot, just romantic and relationship-ish development. Hopefully this whets your appetites. **

**Next Chapter: How do you infiltrate a fanatical religious Order? Well, Kaoru, Misao and Tokio have an idea, but convincing their significant others to let them do it is a whole different thing...**


	6. Three Blondes And Another Wormwood

_Third Impressions_

_Part VI_

Tsubame flattened herself against the wall behind her, hoping that somehow she could blend in. Dressed in the sort of adorable, ruffled skirt and puffy-sleeved top that she was, she knew that moving would attract attention. But if she could just stand still, in the shadows behind the Dumpster, then maybe the crowds would thin and she could go...where? Her original plan had been to go to Tae, her older sister, but the restaurant was closed. No one she knew wandered the streets within her sight, and she despaired of ever managing to evade the Order's men that even now would be beginning the roll call, checking to insure that Besh's private servants were where they were supposed to be. The other girls would cover for her, but it was only a matter of time before someone noticed what was going on. And what would they do to her if she got caught?

There had to be a hiding place somewhere. Where could a girl in such extravagant clothing, with men looking for her even now, take refuge? And what if the Order's men hurt whoever took pity on her?

Taking a chance, Tsubame darted out and peered around the streets. It was crowded and there were no Order men nearby. Catching sight of a group of women coming directly toward her, she jumped out of the way.

"...going to the temple..." Of course, the Temple of the Goddess, located in the religious section of Pearl. It was a sanctuary for those who need the protection of the Goddess. Within the protective circle carved into the floor, you could not be touched by anyone whose intentions were not pure, or so she'd been told. Tsubame's sisters were not as religious as some, so she'd never been in a Temple before.

The Temple was a fifteen minute walk from here. If she kept to the shadows and side streets...

...she would still have to pass the hotel where the girls were being kept. To avoid it would take her into parts of town that she didn't know well enough, and if she stayed out in the open she was bound to get caught. Where else could she hide? Looking wildly around for an idea, starting to panic, she spotted a group of kids her age- teenagers, really, but Tsubame looked young for her age and was often mistaken for a middle schooler- laughing and walking across the street. She hurriedly latched onto them, hoping they would camouflage her until she found a place to stay.

Wandering through the crowded mall, she lost the group but wasn't afraid. In the crowded, dim mall, no one would bat an eye at her as long as she stayed quiet. Now to find deserted store, maybe change, and try to go somewhere else...

"Tsubame?" She whirled around looking for her pursuer, but saw only a tall, spiky haired boy. He looked familiar but her terrified mind couldn't place him. Trembling, she began to back away, hoping to hide with the cosplayers up ahead when he held out a hand to her.

"Hey, Tsubame. It's me, Yahiko." Relieved, she came back towards him. Yahiko, who she only saw occasionally now since he was at boarding school. His sister came by more frequently.

"Yahiko, I'm so glad you're here! I-I have to find Tae!" She grabbed onto his outstretched hand.

"Okay. Come on, I'll give you a ride to the Akabeko."

"No, it's closed, I went by earlier. Can you- can you take me to Kaoru? I'm sure she can help me!"

"Yeah, okay. Come on." Confused, he led the girl out into the parking lot and to his car. It was the sort of old car that gets sold for parts at the junk yard, but Kaoru had refused to get him anything better. She said that once he had a real job and finished his schooling, then and only then would he get a real car. A car that he would have to buy himself. It was green, and shabby, and smelled odd inside, but Tsubame held onto the seat like it was her last lifeline on Earth. Yahiko noticed her tight grip.

"My driving's not that bad, Tsubame."

"No, it's just..." She couldn't finish; they were passing her hotel. Any minute now, she'd be charged, the men shooting at them. Yahiko would get hurt, everyone would get hurt, and she would be forced to return to the service of Besh and his insane followers.

'_No.'_ she told herself firmly_. 'No. They can't possibly see you in a moving car; they would never expect me to be with Yahiko, who's supposed to be at school.'_

Lost in her thoughts, she didn't notice they were parked until Yahiko nudged her gently.

"Hey." He said. "We're here. Kaoru was here when I left."

"This isn't your dojo." Tsubame looked with perplexity at the tall apartment building with shining glass windows and ornate terraces. This was the nicest part of the Devil-Eye Districts; and the most expensive. She couldn't understand why Kaoru would sell her house and come live here.

"No, we're staying with a friend while it's...um...fumigated." He made a fast excuse, knowing that he wasn't supposed to tell people anything they didn't need to know. Kenshin had been clear on that point, stressing the importance of secrecy. So much, in fact, that even Yahiko was missing a few crucial facts. Like where his sister had met an assassin in the first place. Every time he tried asking, they got him off topic somehow. He decided that he didn't really want to know if it made Kaoru blush when he asked about it.

"Oh. Um...should we go in from here, or...?" Tsubame had never been in such a fancy place before. She didn't know what the etiquette was, and she couldn't afford to stand out.

'_Pull yourself together.'_ She scolded herself. '_Just follow Yahiko. Kaoru can help you.'_

"We'll take the fire escape. It's faster that way." They walked around the building to a long, well-made staircase that crawled up the side of the wall. It was shining, unrusted steel- obviously used and maintained well. Yahiko let her go first, and she tried to keep herself hidden in front of him as they slowly made their way to the top of the staircase. Nervous at the growing height, she clung to the handrail, which was reassuringly hard and sturdy.

Yahiko reached across her shoulder when they were at the very top, sticking a key into the lock on the tall window. With a click he turned it, slowly, right, then left, then right again. It was a combination lock that needed a key to open it. With another clicking noise, and a faint buzzing that Tsubame thought might be magic, the window slid smoothly open. She clambered over the rim and the windowsill, the other teenager at her heels. He closed the window behind her, and she hurried out of the room.

"Hey! Ugly! We have a guest, so get your fat-" Something flew out of the living room and hit Yahiko squarely in the head. He yelled, grabbing onto his sore scalp and motioned for Tsubame to go ahead.

"Kaoru, are you here?" She asked nervously. A head poked up from behind the couch, dark hair tousled from sleep into a halo around her face. The drowsiness faded from her face when she recognized Tsubame. Jumping over the couch and nearly crashing headfirst into the carpet, Kaoru grabbed Tsubame's hands.

"Tsubame! Where have you been? Last the police sighted you, you were north!"

"That was a trick. I was really in the south. Kaoru, I really need your help, so if you could maybe hide me?"

"Of course! I'll call Tae, she'll want to know her little sister's back home! And I should call Kenshin and let him know, this might be important..."

The younger girl didn't have a chance to ask you Kenshin was, since Kaoru was already dialing her older sister.

"Hello? Tae? Can you come over right now? No, there's no emergency; your little sister just came in. Yahiko brought back- no, I don't know. I have to call Kenshin and ask, he'll probably know more about- talk to Yahiko? Sure."

She handed the phone to the grumbling Yahiko, who told Tae about finding Tsubame in the mall and bringing her back here.

Meanwhile Kaoru was digging under the sofa for her cell phone, since the house phone was occupied.

The brown-haired girl sat down on the sofa and hugged her knees, suddenly feeling much lighter. Soon, she'd see her sister, and then she could tell the police what she knew.

Maybe some of the other girls would free, too.

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"We found a way into Besh's headquarters."

"How?"

"They make most of their money off of the illegal female slave trade, specializing in nonhumans. Besh and a few high-ranking subordinates choose their own servants, and the ugliest of them are kept as servants for the others. Besh always chooses sirens, mermaids, or water sprites."

"So what, idiot?"

"So those caravans go north first, make sure a few of the missing girls who have families are sighted and reported, and then they sneak south to the Order where no one notices them."

"You still haven't explained to me why this is even relevant...idiot."

"So the caravan is here, in Onyx. Right now. They don't steal girls from this city, since the odds of being caught are so high. But they do stop and stay a night to get supplies. If hat Tsubame has told us is correct, they'll head north, and split into smaller groups that go through small towns. If we could sneak someone onto a caravan-"

"Like who?"

"There are plenty of ways to create a fake person, Shishou. You know that."

"A real woman might work better."

"A real woman might get hurt. A fake one that we're controlling won't."

"Have you told Kaoru any of this?"

"She told me about Tsubame- Yahiko found her and brought her to my apartment- but she doesn't know my plans."

"Because she'll offer herself up to go, and you're overprotective."

"Because it's a pointless argument. Kaoru is the last person I would send on a mission like this."

"Like I said, idiot, you're overprotective."

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"We'll be dropping you off at the Lou's apartment. From there your on your own. Remember, first thing-"

"Find the tickets and travel information. Then get acquainted with the people. I really appreciate your help."

Kaoru, Misao, and Tokio were seated in the back of a taxi, squished together. They each held identical new designer tote bags containing everything they needed to bring with them. Kaoru had the harp; Misao had the files; and Tokio had some extremely creatively disguised weaponry. It didn't hurt to be careful, after all.

The man who'd been told to drive them dropped them off, wished them luck, and left before he was spotted. The three girls, giggling, sauntered up the stairs and into the complex. It wasn't very pretty, but the Lou triplets, daughters of a bankrupt oil tycoon, had recently lost all their money. The apartment building was the perfect place for them: it was very cheap.

The actual apartment had ratty carpet in what might have been white but was now puke green, puke yellow, gray, and brown, depending on the room. The bathrooms were dirty and linoleum, the mirrors were all cracked, and the smell...it made public bathrooms seem like heaven. The kitchen looked too dangerous, with occasionally sparking appliances and slime dripping from the ceiling.

No wonder there were take-out menus taped to the walls. And Tokio had thought it was only because of the hideous lime green with powder blue and pink hearts on it.

At least they wouldn't be ere long. The Lou sisters had been planning to move soon to a small town just south of here, and run a flower shop there. They were alone, and penniless, and would be mildly ostracized as new comers for a while. Perfect targets for the Order. Luckily for them, they would be impersonated by Kaoru, Misao, and Tokio, who hopefully could infiltrate by being captured. As long as they acted like April, May, and June Lou, there was no reason why they wouldn't be. Especially since one of the higher-ups in the Order always kept blonde servants.

Misao dragged a large mirror, smudged with grime, out of the master (and only) bedroom.

"Here." She said. "Let's just take a look at ourselves."

In the mirror stood three identical girls. Girls with long, white-blonde hair that curved and waved to perfection til it reached their waists. Girls with exotic gray eyes that gleamed with mischief and irresponsibility. Girls in matching clothes and matching accessories, who smiled the same superficial white smile with pearly teeth.

"We look the part, at least. All we have to do is act it." Kaoru said, satisfied. She frowned, tugging on a strand of blonde hair. "We have to shower here at least a few times, so we'll smell the same, too. Remember how even after Alzi changed us, Kenshin could still pick me out by scent? Let's not take chances." Alzi was a siren who had mastered the trick of turning all the bone in someone's face into wax, then reshaping it as desired, and hardening it into bone again. Add iris, hair, and skin dyes and no one could have noticed that the three weren't the Lous.

"Yeah, I remember. It was creepy." Misao rolled her eyes. "Seriously, you don't think it was...stalker-ish?"

"Not stalker-ish, Misao, just plain stalker. Don't ever try and leave him, Kaoru."

"I wouldn't dream of it. Come on, let's try and figure these girls out." The three dispersed, looking in all the cupboard and closets, learning what each of their new selves liked and disliked.

Kaoru, who was now April, found that she now played tennis and volleyball, wore nail polish all the time and coordinated it perfectly with her clothes, and always matched her sisters. She liked green and orange.

Tokio, who was now May, discovered she too played tennis and volleyball, wore constant nail varnish, and coordinated herself to the T. She liked pink and purple.

Misao, or June, was exactly like May and April. Except she liked blue and red. It was as though they were the same person in three bodies. Even their diaries were alike, the same events in each one told from different points of view. The only discernable difference in the pictures that they found was that each girl wore a bracelet with her name hanging from it in the colors she liked. Otherwise, they were carbon copies.

"It feels weird to be as tall as you, Kaoru." Misao complained, going through June's sneakers. They were white, posh, and only genteel used. It was easy to see why; they were decorated with diamonds in the toe and heel.

"It feels weird to have blonde hair. I've never willingly died my hair."

"I've dyed your hair!"

"The operative word in the sentence was 'willingly', Misao." The two laughed and continued their thorough search of the bedroom.

Tokio joined them, holding an armload of purses, designer and expensive all. "I found these. Three of each; we have to coordinate everything. What a pain."

The other two concurred. They worked for another hour, immersing themselves neck deep into the Lou siblings' lives.

If no one suspected anything, they would be within Order lands in just a month.

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In a hotel in Viper, Arnold Wormwood sighed with relief. H wiped the sweat form his face. This member of the Wormwood family was the brother of the late Harold Wormwood, and was very displeased. Two of his relatives, dead! But he had been honored with the position of guard for the women they were selling. And he would receive second choice of slaves. This was exciting for him, since women abhorred him for one, superficial, yet disgusting reason.

He sweat. He sweat a lot, so much that no amount of prescription strength deodorant and anti-perspirant could help. He perpetually stank as well.

Now, closing the door on the chained women, he looked for his fellow guards. Ever since the youngest girl, the one who the Great One had sent with them to be broken in, had escaped, he'd been on edge. If any other girls ran off, they would have to pack and run before one of them caught Battousai's attention. Their discovery would collapse their lucrative business.

But for now he was safe. The rest of the girls were there, and he would have a chance to get new ones from the next town. Hopefully a few cute blondes- as a teen, a pretty blonde girl had rejected him, and he'd never gotten over her.

Her name had been April Lou, or was it May? He could never tell her and her triplets apart, and it didn't matter. They were women, inferior to men in all ways. But she hadn't seen it that way- when he couldn't tell her apart, from the others, she'd coldly told him she "didn't date stinking, sweat-soaking pigs like him."

He was not bitter. Not at all.

He'd get his girl in the next town. June, or April, or September was an impoverished heiress, and he was an important man, working as the Goddess's agent on Earth. Who cared if July hadn't liked him?

He didn't care, didn't carry her picture in his wallet. Didn't dream of her even at the age of forty.

"In the next town, I'll grab a nice blonde girl. She won't call me a sweaty pig..."

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The flower shop was tasteful in the extreme. Everything smelled clean and floral, the flowers were labeled prettily, and the three staff members were perfectly delightful in their matching uniforms and shining nameplates.

This was the general impression that the customers left with, and soon enough the false sisters Lou were up to their necks in work, for their flowers never seemed to be wilted and lasted a long time more tan anyone else's. Young and old men, wanting roses, husbands wanting exotic things for anniversaries, and wives needing party decorations. There were always orders to fill, and most villagers assumed that the girls slept at night to recharge for the next hectic day.

But at night, the three girls sheltered in the nearby wood and plotted. They spread out files and sparred, knocked things over and repaired them with magic. There was always the possibility that the Order would recognize them, and if that happened, more then likely there would be a fight.

On this night, the girls were nervous and didn't venture out of their flat above the shop. The Order caravan was due to arrive tomorrow morning, and the three lay on the floor of the living room, going over the plan, again.

"So, we get into the headquarters. Than what?" Tokio knew the answer, but it was a ritual to ask questions as though none of them knew anything.

"Then we spy. We spy and infiltrate and gather information." Misao said. "And after we think we know enough?"

"We're supposed to send the signal, and wait for our big, strong men like good little girls." Kaoru supplied. "I was thinking last night, and I figured something out."

"What?" Misao asked curiously."

"Siren magic can be distilled in water. If done correctly- not an easy thing- you get water that retains all the properties of both water and magic."

"Renewable magic. You could do all kinds of things with that." Tokio said.

"That's why the Order keeps all those sirens and water sprites, I'll bet. To distill their power into water and use it to power their headquarters. Which is good. If my power was distilled, it should still be in use. I should be able to fuse into their storage, or whatever. I could shut down whatever system they're using."

"That would be good. No magic, probably easier to blow up or whatever." Tokio mused. "How are we going to hide our powers from the Order?"

Misao grinned evilly. "I got Heretic's Oil off the black market. Don't ask where or how, you really don't want to know, but it works."

"Heretic's Oil? Are you serious?" Heretic's Oil, as Kaoru full well knew, was a magic-proof substance. It could block or conceal any magic it was applied to. But only about fifty gallons were produced per year and sold at incredible prices.

"Yeah." Misao said. "Tomorrow, we can soak in it before we accidentally allow ourselves to be captured."

Kaoru and Tokio nodded, forgetting she couldn't see them while they were on the floor.

Silently Kaoru prayed.

'_Goddess, Mother, defend us from evil with all your might. Disperse the impure intentions of monsters and deflect all terrors from our hearts...'_

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Linda Stone was a successful businesswoman. She was used to having her way, and despaired over weaker people. In her opinion, all women had to be strong to survive. She loathed weak people, and all the other inhabitants of the caravan they were in seemed thoroughly weak to her.

Some of the girls cried, some of them were silent, and still others chattered inanely, But none of them had Linda's poise or cool head. It didn't occur to her that she would probably attract plenty of customers with her mysterious face and lack of weakness, and that the pitiful behavior of the other girl's might be an act to help protect themselves. No, for Linda Stone, she was strong and others were weak, and nothing else mattered.

She was dozing lightly when she was knocked awake by a thump.

The curtain at one end of their truck had been pulled aside and guards were heaving three other girls, new ones, in handcuffs and gags into the truck. She leaned forward and in the dim light of the one lantern they were given saw that the girls were triplets, pretty and blonde. She recalled their faces from woman's magazines that her ridiculously simple-minded daughter read. April, May, and June Lou, former rich girls.

One of them pulled herself to her knees with surprising ease and began wiggling her wrists.

"It's no good, there's no way you can break out." Linda told her. The girl ignored her and continued twisting. With a snap, the hand cuffs dropped off, still locked and closed; the girl's wrists free, she yanked out her gag and began helping one of her sisters, who was already starting to pop her own hands free. Within a minute, all three had handcuffs in their laps and gags on the floor.

Linda stared. Who were these girls? "Hi. I'm Linda Stone."

The first girl smiled at her. "June Lou. So what exactly is going on here?"

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**Yeah, it's too short, but this was a good place to stop. How did Kaoru and CO. convince their boyfriends/husbands to let them go? Um...I'll get there. Eventually. Next Chapter; Kaoru and Co. (I like this abbreviation) adjust to life in the Order HQ, while back home in Onyx, Kenshin and Co. worry about them. Oh, and stuff happens. **

**Thanks for all your reviews. If you like this Impressions Trilogy, False Identity, a one-shot that's set way after Third Impressions, and does have spoilers (but if you're reading this it shouldn't matter) is up**


	7. All Falls Down

_Third Impressions_

_Part VII_

"Where did you learn that?" Linda demanded. "What's going on here, anyways?"

"Never mind all that." One of the three said. "I'm May Lou. Do you know where this caravan goes?"

Linda shook her head. "The guards haven't said. They're too busy keeping this lot quiet." She motioned with disgust to the girls around her, most of who were sleeping. A few had woken and were timidly eyeing the newcomers with fear.

One of them spoke up softly. "You shouldn't defy them. They'll only hit you...keep hitting you until you stop." She mumbled the last few words, her voice thick with distress. It was clear from the way she let her hair block her face and the way she held herself tightly, in a defensive ball, that she was speaking from personal experience.

"Don't mind her." Linda sighed. "That's my cousin, Melanie. She's afraid of everything, even these men. Yes, the men are rough. They whip you if you talk back. But nothing has happened to me."

"You're new." Melanie murmured pitifully. She lifted her head, revealing a bruise over her eye. "You'll see. They're not- they'll hurt you until you break. You'll probably be sold though."

"I'm April Lou. Melanie, you've been here for a while. What's going on here?"

"They- I don't know who- but we're picked from our villages and taken to the auctions. I've been in this caravan or three months. Some of us will be sold. Others get chosen by whoever runs this. And, um, I think the really pretty ones get given to this man they call the Great One." Melanie said. "Linda's going to be sold. I heard one of the guards say so."

'April', 'May', and 'June' looked at each other with trepidation. Misao/June moved against an empty spot on the wall, leaning against it gratefully. The three girls had wandered around for hours before finally managing to get themselves captured, and her feet hurt.

Kaoru/April continued to talk to Melanie. "So, you and Linda are cousins. How are you related?"

Linda answered. "On my mother's side. Don't bother with her. She's weak-willed."

"It takes all kinds of strength to make the world go round." Tokio/May commented, joining Misao on the wall. She winced at the vibrations. "They don't care if we look good, I see."

"They'll dress us up when we stop somewhere big." Melanie said. "They always disguise us in Onyx. It's not safe there. One of the girls- Tsubame- escaped, and they couldn't track her because the man who runs Onyx is too powerful."

Kaoru nodded, inwardly thankful that Tsubame had escaped into Onyx. She knew almost everything that Melanie was telling her. The question was how to find out more. One of these girls might have been inside the Order's headquarters, which would be important information. The problem was that asking too many questions would raise suspicions. They were supposed to be heiresses, after all. Not spies. Unless they managed to convince a few of the girls that they weren't impoverished triplets and disguised spies; then they would definitely have all the answers they need. The trick was to make sure their true identities never reached the ears of the Order.

Tokio said curiously. "You seem to know a lot."

"I'm the guard's slave." She explained. "So I travel with this shift whenever they set out."

So the guards had their own slaves. That was helpful. She wondered how they stopped the girls from banding together and trying to break out. Linda Stone seemed to dislike the other girls, and Melanie seemed extremely shy and frightened at first glance, but seemed perfectly calm once you got her talking.

The loud footsteps of the guard's boots clunked toward the caravan. The Lous quickly put on their handcuffs and gags, looking appropriately cowardly.

The curtain pulled back to reveal several guards. "Melanie! We're going into town and you are coming with us." The timid look had come back into the girl's face; she quickly scampered out of the caravan and followed the laughing men off. The curtain fell shut.

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The Headquarters of the Order of Truth was oddly reminiscent of Saitou's apartment before Tokio had moved in. it was very white, very bare, and very ugly.

The girls were kept in a wooden room painted- you guessed it- white when they arrived, and were dressed up and cleaned up before being presented to the Council of the Order. They worked directly under the Great One, Besh.

Besh chose one girl, a mute brown-haired siren, and then Arnold Wormwood took his choice. He chose the three blonde girls with a giddy glee, his mind filled with high-school memories. The girls flinched at smell of his sweat, but were glad to have been left together. The rest of the girls who belonged to the Council were taken with them to another, slightly nicer room of white painted cement. It was cold, and hard, but at least they had each other. Or so they thought.

Kaoru soon discovered how the Order kept the servants divided. Linda Stone was appointed 'manager' of all the girls, and could earn all kinds of favors for herself by reporting their offenses. Melanie had left with the guards onto a caravan. The three had befriended two other girls in their room, Tara and Yara.

They were twins, green-skinned tree spirits. Both of they w ore twig necklaces to keep tem from pining away for their trees. Tara and Yara were very close, and Kaoru often suspected that they knew the three were impostors; they didn't seem to have the kinship that Tara and Yara shared.

The routine in the Order turned out to be very, very boring. They would wake in the mornings and quickly rush to look wide-awake. About fifteen minutes after they woke up, their morning breakfast of bland gruel would be left. They would eat their gruel, and then wait until one of their lords called them.

Arnold seemed afraid of Kaoru, Tokio and Misao; whenever he called them to entertain him, he would sit and leer at them, wanting to do something but not having the required courage. They would have lunch with him, silently savoring the food, and he would stare at them until one of them said something0 any random thing. Then he would send them off.

They would have had plenty of free time to explore and spy, if it weren't for Linda.

Linda was determined to keep her position as snitch and continue to receive the better food, better accommodations, and other niceties. If she let one of them break the rules and they were found out, someone would replace her as favored servant, and she would have to endure the vengeance that her successor would surely wreak upon her.

It had been Misao's idea to bring Linda's fears to fruition: replace her with one of them, or help someone else overthrow her so that they could get on with the spying. The easiest way was to frame her for something she hadn't done. The lists of crimes were numerous; the girls could be punished for a whole host of things, including smiling too much to using anything but the most deferential language. In the end, Kaoru was called upon to use her siren talent. So far, the three had concealed their true natures with Heretic's Oil, but using their power through the oil was difficult. With practice, the siren mastered the skill.

It was during one of Linda's lectures on being strong. These lectures were hated by all, being long, tedious, and self-absorbed.

"Strength is the ability to get what you want." Linda drawled in what she thought was a sultry voice. She fluttered her stubby lashes pathetically. "To have power over others and know it. If you bend to others...you are weak. If you bend to a man, especially, you are weak."

She turned to face the wall. her voice rang out again, loudly, this time with something quite unexpected: a string of vile curses. She went on and on, in several languages, without pausing or repeating herself once. The ventriloquist Kaoru grinned, and Misao muttered, "You go, April." Raising her hand, she motioned in a frightened way to a guard.

The guard, when he heard the language billowing from Linda's throat, grabbed her by the hair and tossed her into the far wall. With an ominous smile, turned to the weasel-imp and appointed her manger.

Once he was gone, the three exchanged smiles. Let the games begin.

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His apartment was empty without her here, and the quiet was starting to get to him.

He'd become too used to her falling asleep on the couch and leaving her things in the hallway. Everything reminded him of her and her absence.

He opened the fridge and immediately thought of Kaoru's ice cream addiction.

He couldn't look at his wallpaper, because Kaoru had mocked it.

As for his bedroom...he hadn't entered his bedroom at all. He'd put his clothes in a suitcase and put it under the dining table.

He was going to lose his mind any day now. It was all a matter of time. If she didn't come back, Shishou would have to have him committed, and he'd sit there in a reinforced straitjacket looped up on medication, babbling about the exchange rate of cupcakes and souls.

How had he let her convince him that this was a good idea? Yes, it had to be a woman, and yes, a real woman did work better, as Shishou had said. Her own skills and the unlikelihood of the Order expecting her to walk into their headquarters were probably part of it.

All he could do now was work and work, plan for every possible contingency, and hope that nothing would happen to her.

But he missed her, and Saitou missed Tokio, and Aoshi missed Misao, and even though none of them would ever admit it...

They were lonely.

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Besh had a problem.

In one word? Battousai.

The Order had been bankrupted. Their woman-selling business had been trashed by police in several countries. It was beautifully engineered. If it hadn't been happening to him, it would have been funny.

Without money, their operations would have to be stopped. Shishio had already hinted that unless he could provide him with a reason to stay, he would break their contract. Impudent man! Besh felt helpless in the face of his enemies: enemies that were closing in on all sides. He was being backed into a corner. But he still had a few resources left.

The last shipment of girls was in. The triplets, blonde and stupid, were famous in the human world. They would make good hostages; their parents might be able to pay a ransom. But that would attract too much attention. He could utilize some of the woman of water's stored, distilled power that was held in reserve. It was strong enough to be of some use.

But without the woman of water herself, his plans would all go to waste.

There had to be a way to capture her! His one spy had reported that Battousai had sent the woman to a European safe house for protection. I didn't make any sense. That demon would never send his woman away during a war situation. She was being hidden somewhere. But where? If he were to hide someone, he would simply wipe their minds and send them right into Onyx. With his luck, the Battousai would end up rescuing them.

It suddenly occurred to him how good an idea that was. To hide the woman you loved in the house of the enemy...

...had the demon done the same thing?

There had been a few sirens in the last shipment of women. He immediately crossed them off his list; too obvious. The best way to hide them would be as a human.

There had been five humans in the last shipment. The triplets, one of the guard's girls who was with the shift of guards guarding the Old Temple, and a strong-willed woman named Linda Stone.

Linda Stone...her eyes were steely and her voice was strong. The physical details were unimportant. But the personality...the same defiance that the woman of water had possessed. Could they be one and the same?

The triplets...they were exact opposites of her. It would be the perfect disguise.

Melanie was not the woman of water; she had been first caught a few months ago.

Either Linda Stone or one of the blonde ones.

Besh felt a smile cross his face evilly. So, the Battousai thought to defeat him? He would see who won this game.

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They had all been invited to come personally see Besh, and Misao didn't like it one bit.

Besh was the reason they were all here, being drooled at by Arnold and held prisoner by the guards.

He sat them down in his office. Linda Stone was there, as well.

'_And here I was hoping this was a reward.'_ Misao felt her nervousness increase. This was not looking good.

Tokio and Kaoru were holding her hands reassuringly. They were both older then her. She supposed they felt like they had to take care of her. Hah! In Misao's opinion, Kaoru need taking care of: if anything happened to her, Kenshin would kill them. Saitou would do the same for Tokio.

'_Great. I'm the least important!'_

He was smiling, frog-like, his slimy-looking skin making her feel ill.

"Hello, Kaoru." Misao felt her insides lurch. He knew. But she forced herself to look confused but not shocked. Beside her Tokio and Kaoru especially were keeping their faces schooled.

Besh waited for a reaction; seeing none, he turned to Linda. "Kaoru!"

Linda flinched then spoke. "Great One, I am not Kaoru. It is her, April. I heard one of the other girls call her that. Please forgive me!" She groveled on the floor for a few moments.

'_After all her lectures on bending to men making us weak? Who's weak now, Linda?'_

Besh turned to grab Kaoru, but Tokio was quicker. Shedding her human guise with a flick of her wrist, she slashed Besh across the face with long, sharp claws.

"Ah!" He grabbed his bloodied face while Kaoru let her own human face fall away. Misao followed suit, slamming the door shut with one hand and pulling out a brace of kunai with the other. Before Besh could grab the staff leaning against the far wall of his office, she pinned him to the desk with her sharp knifes. Kaoru did something with a shrieking note; ice rose up out of the floor and held him down.

"Damn." Tokio commented. "This is not looking good. Kaoru, hide, they'll all be after you, not me and Misao. We'll cover you."

"Don't be an idiot." Kaoru snapped. "We need to get into their storage so I can shut down their magical generator. My power is still in there; I can get in. I'll cover you; this whole building is riddled with defensive magic."

"Who needs magic?" Misao asked. "I have my fists, if it comes to that. You handle the magic; Tokio and I will slash things up."

"Sounds like a plan to me." Kaoru said, grinning slowly.

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Shishou's house was on fire.

Normally this would have at least mildly disturbed Kenshin. But since he was the one who had blown it up with the force of his rage, it didn't bother him at all. Currently, he was far more interested in the men who worked directly under him, the ones who were currently being given a pile of papers and files to carry while listening to his rapid-fire orders.

"Grab this, memorize it, burn it before you get into Gem. Someone find me that spy so I can interrogate him. And find out who delivered this ransom message. Don't burn down the city while I'm gone."

Hypocritical advice coming from him.

"You're leaving?" One o his men asked.

"Shishio has invited me personally to come and kill him. How can I refuse?" He didn't mention what they all knew: that the ransom message that had showed up not an hour ago had fueled his decision.

He turned and started down the side of them mountain with ease. It was far away, but it was safer to run there. After all, Besh's men would have a job and half tracking down a demon on foot rather than a demon using other forms of transportation.

Hiko watching his idiot apprentice run off.

"That idiot had better replace all the sake he burned."

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Tokio wasn't the type of woman who ran from danger, or confrontation. Succubae had a bad reputation, and she had never hesitated to correct ignoramuses who thought she was a slut because she showed a lot of skin. What she wore wasn't about those men; it was about her. And anyone who thought otherwise would be corrected by the sharp points of her claws.

But now she and her two friends were running, down the wide corridors and through all, from the hordes of armed men who wanted to bring the wrath of the Goddess down upon them.

Kaoru had told them that they had to go into the temple and take refuge there; it was forbidden to harm anyone within the circle of the Goddess, after all.

They couldn't find the temple, however, and it was beginning to get tedious, running, finding themselves facing a mob, turning and running somewhere else. It was a game of tag where everyone was it. There had to be an easier way out of this.

"I say we stand and fight the next mob." Misao said. She was flying alongside them, a sign of true friendship, since she could fly faster then either of them could run.

"Why?" Kaoru asked.

"Because otherwise they'll chase us into a corner and gang up on us." Misao replied as she nearly hit a wall and turned at the last minute.

"Fine." Tokio agreed, letting her retracted claws slide out.

"Around the corner- the temple's that way." Kaoru said, pointed to a symbol on the wall. Tokio didn't understand it, but didn't argue with Kaoru: she knew more about the Goddess then she did.

Around said corner was a vicious mob of Council members, wielding staff with razor-sharp blades on the ends. Behind them was the temple door. Kaoru motioned to a door on the side, whispering that it was the dressing room. It wouldn't be locked.

"On the count of three."

"One..."

"Two..."

"Three!" There was a loud noise as a spring of water burst from the ground beneath the mob and began freezing around their feet. Tokio swiped at the men nearest, easily driving them into the frozen death trap. Misao kicked a guy in the head and he crashed into a wall.

She ducked trough the dressing room door, which as Kaoru had guessed was unlocked. They made their way into the temple from a side entrance, not sopping til they were well inside the circle. Then they sat down and took stock.

Cuts and bruises, nothing more. They were fine.

Kaoru began eagerly pawing through the neatly stacked treasures of the Order.

"The divine weaponry of the Goddess." Kaoru murmured. "It's in bad shape. No one had taken care of it."

"What's this?" Tokio pulled out a scroll with golden lettering in a complex, intricate, foreign script.

Koru snatched it from her hands. "The prophecy of the Order." She breathed. "In original Sirenese, too. Find the official Order translation."

Misao found it in minutes; it was kept in the same box as the original version.

Kaoru spread them both out on a table, reading both. When she was finished, she gave a soft gasp.

"Those complete and utter imbeciles! This is mistranslated!"

"What?" Misao asked. "How?"

"'A man of fire shall rule the dark, a woman of water shall bring the light, and the song of the Goddess shall be sung by her. In the hour of panic they shall give and be given. The song of the Goddess shall be restored in the song of the woman of water, and the Goddess's treasure shall be strung and oiled by her.'" Kaoru read. "That's the translation. But it should be, 'A man of fire shall rule the dark, a woman of water shall bring the light, and the _heart_ of the Goddess shall be borne by her. In the hour of panic they shall _save_ and be_ saved_. The _heart_ of the Goddess shall be _revealed _in the song of the woman of water, and the Goddess's treasure shall be strung and oiled by her.'"

"So let me get this straight. The entire basis for the Order's existence...is a mistranslation." Tokio said with disbelief. "Who's the woman of water, then?"

"I don't know. They thought it would be a siren, because they thought she was supposed to sing. But if you've ever studied archaic siren poetry, you'd know that by 'song of the woman of water' they mean the soul, or inner self. The heart of the goddess is supposed to be her children. Us. Everyone is the heart of the Goddess. Save and be saved...I don't know what that means. The hour of panic...in the calendar of the Goddess, panic can be translated as ewe. The hour of the ewe is supposed to be late afternoon."

"Late afternoon? Didn't Kenshin kill Ryuichi in late afternoon?" Misao asked. "He saved you. And I guess you saved him, by not running away and screaming."

"That would make Kenshin the man of fire. Appropriate. And me as the woman of water...this does make sense. Finding love from the Goddess inside yourself...if they're referring to my religious rebirth after I found out I didn't kill my mother...I just strung and oiled some of the treasure. As for my bringing the light, I don't know. It might not be me. Prophecies are all about interpretation."

"Well, the Order believes it's you." Tokio said. "They have to have a reason. There are a lot of sirens in the world."

"It might be because if who the prophecy was made to." Kaoru pointed out. "For now, let's try and regroup. We need to shut down the defenses for the inside of the headquarters."

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The world around him was bathed in flame and destruction, but he paid it no attention. Aoshi Shinomori was not a sentimental man, and he had few friends.

Kenshin Himura was one of them. And he had told Aoshi to go on ahead while he fought Soujiro and then Shishio, on his own.

He couldn't go with him. But he was waiting, looking for some sign Kenshin had survived.

A shadowy figure was emerging through the smoke. It was the red-haired demon, with a bloodied woman slung over his shoulder. He was limping.

Aoshi wordlessly took the woman, who he recognized as Yumi Komogata. Why was she injured?

"Shishio's dead. Our work is done here." Kenshin said.

The two met up with Saitou, who was amazingly enough smoking, despite the fire raging all around him, at the gates of Shishio's lair. They headed to their camp to leave Yumi.

All that was left was the Order.

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Besh fumbled with the lock on the door, cursing that infernal creature with every breath. The succubus had taken out one of his eyes, destroying his depth perception. He had stumbled into the secret temple below the upper temple where the girls were hiding, but not without several injuries.

He was a man humiliated, and those women would pay for every bruise. They dare strike him, Besh! Master of the World!

His objective now was to use his last weapon. It was the well-guarded secret of the Order. So well-guarded that only he knew of it. No one would ever come down here, and no one would know he had disobeyed the law and released this.

It was a faintly screaming power that lay sealed here; a magic wrought from the blood of babies and the tortured hearts of murderers. It had been hidden for a reason, but Besh was too far gone to realize what he was doing. He knew only that releasing this would kill all three of them, and therefore destroy the prophecy. It would be fulfilled at a later date, when he, Besh, could control it properly.

It would be easy to kill the Battousai once his woman was dead.

He pried at the seal after smearing it with blood from his ruined, blind eye. It glowed, trembled, and for the first time he felt a tremor of fear.

The explosion was silent; a wave of oozing evil that killed Besh in a second and continued it's way upward.

Several hundred feet above and five feet to the right, a demon, a wolf, and a soul-eater arrived at the Order.

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**Yes! Another too-short cliffie. A note to all readers: Please check my profile. There are polls, the impressions play list, an explanation of the Impressions-world government, and updates on my progress on my current fics. There are two one shots, two three shots, and this thing, which should be wrapped up in two or three chapters. The sequel to TI, Mentoring, is also partway done. To learn more, GO TO MY PROFILE. I do actually update it every time I update...anything.**

**Love your reviews...hint, hint. Thanks for reading!**


	8. Because I Love You

_Third Impressions_

_Part VIII_

All over Gem City, people looked at the sky and wondered why it was suddenly green.

Some screamed of apocalypse, and others cried it was the Martians.

But a few knew it for what it was and trembled. Yahiko and Tsubame, waiting in Kenshin's apartment, held hands tightly. Megumi, arms held protectively over her stomach, prayed for her baby. Sanosuke involved in a brawl, looked at the sky and murmured, "You'd better not die out there, Jou-chan."

The remaining Oniwabanshuu stared at the sickly sky and hoped that Misao and Aoshi were alive.

And then the mist spread over the city and the screaming began. All over the city, those who were trained to handle magical catastrophe ran to their stations to activate the defenses.

They couldn't stop it, but they could delay it. All they could really do was get people out and hope that whatever was causing this stopped soon.

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Kaoru had drawn another circle, this one in blood.

It was an extreme measure, but she had a bad feeling. Something very, very bad was about to hit them, and it was best to be prepared.

The three crouched in the circle, tense and ready to strike. It was eerily silent around them. The mob outside had vanished, and it was getting progressively warmer.

Closing her eyes, Kaoru went through every hymn she knew, singing softly under her breath. She clutched her vial of purified water tightly in one fist. There was no real cause for alarm, and yet something was terribly wrong. She could hear the doom approaching, ringing in her ears.

Suddenly, the three were bathed in a sickly green light from below. The floor was shaking, wide cracks appearing in the stone. The circle had no effect; the cracks went through it and opened under their feet. Tokio dug her claws into a wall, but that too was breaking. A rock hit Misao from behind and she tumbled down a hole.

The vial in her hand cracked in her tight grip, sharp shards, cutting into her skin, holy water leaking out and diluting the blood. Smearing her injured hand on the altar, Kaoru prayed fervently for strength. The gouges were spreading, and none of her songs seemed to have any effect. What she going to die here?

Call me, child.

"What...? Who...?"

Call me, my daughter. Call me and I will come.

"Mother..."

Call the light back, Kaoru. See the evil spreading and call the light back into it.

If anyone had been around or awake to see this phenomenon, they would have seen a woman knelling on the altar of the Goddess. A woman whose very skin seemed to radiate sunlight so brightly that you could hardly look at her without being blinded.

She could feel a presence with her, holding her hand. Power seemed to fill her to bursting, until it was all she could do to keep from exploding from the sheer strength of it. The pain was indescribable, more terrible then anything she could imagine. It hurt everywhere, as though needle were being jabbed into every inch of her skin and her organs had been set aflame. Her throat felt as though someone was scraping the inside of it with a saw.

There was blood running down her neck, leaking from the corners of her mouth, but Kaoru paid it no heed.

She was absorbed in the gargantuan task of directing the he flow of white0hot, pure energy that was coming from somewhere deep inside her.

The terrible green evil, oozing from the ground like the Devil's from an open sore on the surface of Hell, was receding, slowly, into a corner. The light burned it, destroyed it, conquered it. Kaoru grasped in one hand a broken piece of her vial, embedded into one palm. The evil, seeking an escape, poured into the piece of glass.

Kaoru fell onto her back, mouth still open in a song that was part huntress and part mother, part fire and part ice, part day and part night.

She couldn't see or even hear, only feel the light erupting from her skin and keep it from destroying her in its intensity.

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When greenish-black slime began to ooze from the ground, Kenshin knew that something was wrong. Especially when the sky turned green and an aura of evil pervaded the air.

"What the hell...?" Saitou asked as a tentacle of slime tried to grab his leg. "What is this?"

"Pure evil." Aoshi replied. He threw a tuft o grass into the slime where it withered and then vanished, devoured by the thing.

"The walls are stopping it from spreading somehow." Kenshin said, pointing. "It's coming through a crack in the ground."

"We're not going to be able to plug this thing." Saitou observed.

"No." Aoshi agreed.

"We'll have to go straight to the source, then. Underground somewhere..." The aura of the greenish ooze touched his mind, and he shuddered in horror. It was something so evil that even its barest touch made him want to scream.

The other two men noticed his expression and looked slightly worried. Kenshin was not a demon who flinched at the sight of evil.

"Whoever made this slaughtered children to do it. I can hear their spirits screamed." Kenshin hissed. "It was sealed. Who let this out?"

"How do you know it was sealed?" Saitou asked.

"The souls in this speak of freedom." Aoshi replied. "They were trapped before."

"Besh." Kenshin whispered. "He must have done this; no one else would be stupid enough to unleash this on anything."

"Forget who. They're dead." Saitou said bluntly. "What's behind the wall that's stopping it from spreading?"

"Something pure enough to restrain it...a temple." Kenshin replied. "This is a religious organization, after all. If anything could stop this, it would be a holy place."

"It's glowing." Saitou said suddenly. He motioned to the walls of the building. "Look."

The building was indeed glowing, and they could hear something, loud and painful. Both Saitou and Aoshi had to grab their ears, which were bleeding form the force of the music. It was terribly wonderful and wonderfully terrible, and Kenshin could see that this was the source of the light and the cause of the evil's destruction.

He was unaffected by the song's power. Why, he didn't know, but he had a feeling that it had to do with Kaoru.

"Please be alive." He muttered as he began searching for an entrance, hidden or otherwise.

And then the sun came out.

Bright light shone directly on the Order Headquarters from above, the sun several times too large. It was a cold sun, for there was no heat; if anything, it was colder. The keening sound of the singing increased, and a single phrase kept cropping up in an ancient language from which Geld, the common tongue of nonhumans, spring.

_Light of love, shine from the heart and cleanse the sky of evil... _

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It was uncomfortable, wherever she was. The ground under her wasn't hard, exactly, but she could feel blunt points poking her back. But the altar had been smooth. The altar! Memory returned in a rush. She had been in the temple, and that evil thing had been spreading, and then a voice had spoken to her and she had called out to her mother, or to the Goddess, and someone had apparently answered her because she was alive and reasonably well. Unless this was heaven, or hell, or some other form of the afterlife?

Opening her eyes, she slowly adjusted to the bright, harsh light of the fluorescent bulb overhead. It was a hospital, with medical machinery all around her. A monitor was beeping in time with her heart, and other charts measured things she didn't understand. The chart by her head was incomprehensible to anyone without a fancy degree.

What was going on?

The door opened, and Kenshin walked in. As soon as he saw she was awake, he closed the door behind him and came to sit beside her.

"Does it hurt?" He asked. She reached out and took his hand in hers, squeezing reassuringly.

"No, I feel great, actually." She said, surprised. Her throat didn't hurt at all.

"You purifed several thousand miles of land in three countries. I'm going to be filling out paperwork for months." He told her.

"How did I do that?" She asked, shocked. Several thousand miles? She thought I had only been the temple!

"I don't know. There are priestesses from the Temple of the Goddess here, saying you utilized divine power. You can talk to them later."

"Later?"

"You should rest now." He said seriously.

"I am a little tired." She admitted.

There was something he wanted to say, Kaoru was sure of it. He kept watching her, as though waiting for her to ask a question. She didn't know what she was supposed to ask.

"Wait! The others- is everyone alright?"

"Your purification healed everyone in the area of everything, including cancer, AIDS, and diabetes. People are calling you a goddess now."

Kaoru wrinkled her nose. "I'm not a goddess. I was just lucky."

"More than just lucky. I shouldn't have let you go."

"No, you should have. I would have found a way around you, and then you'd have worried even more."

"You wouldn't have gotten around me. I'm good at forcing people to cooperate."

"I'm stubborn."

"I know."

They sat in awkward silence for some time, while Kaoru tried to think of something to say that didn't sound stupid.

"Marry me." Kenshin said suddenly.

"What?" Kaoru stared at him? Clearly the stress had gotten to him. Had he just proposed to her? In a thoroughly unromantic fashion, too.

"Marry me." He repeated, looking her straight in the eye.

"Why?" She whispered, feeling like she'd missed something along the way here.

"Because I love you."

"Okay." Kaoru said, her throat suddenly dry. Tears were welling up in her eyes. She hugged Kenshin tightly, crying with happiness. "I'll marry you."

"Why?" He asked into her hair. She scowled into his shoulder. This had to be the either the best or worst proposal of all time.

"Because I love you, too." She buried her face in his shoulder. It was warm and safe in his arms, and Kaoru secretly wished she could stay that way forever.

"So, when do I get a ring?"

"Soon." He promised. She was about to kiss him when the door opened to reveal Sano, Megumi, Misao, and Tokio, carrying flowers and balloons. She gave him a questioning glance, and Kenshin shook his head. No, he hadn't told then anything.

"Hey, Jou-chan! How are you feeling?" The rooster-haired Thing asked in a loud voice. Megumi winced, muttered under her breath about bedside manners, and then clamped one perfect hand over Sano's mouth before he could say anything else.

In a voice more appropriate for a patient on their deathbed, Megumi asked, "How are you, Kaoru?"

The siren glared. She was not an invalid. Loud noise wouldn't cause her to die. Looking at her other visitors, she saw that neither Misao nor Tokio sported any injuries. Misao jumped on her, hugging her tightly until she couldn't breathe. When she finally let go, Tokio hugged Kaoru while the weasel tied balloons to the bars on her headboard. They bobbed cheerfully above their heads, making the boring room seem more cheerful.

Kaoru sat up straight, leaning against the cold metal of the headboard. Mourning the loss of Kenshin's body heat, she let go of his hand and hugged her knees.

They then proceeded to exhaust the topic of Kaoru's little stunt in the temple. Every possible detail was wrung out of her, and she was forced to describe the disembodied mother who she'd spoken to several times. After a heated debate on who the "mother" was, they moved to the power she had wielded. After speculating on that, they began discussing the political ramifications of the purification. Since it had touched everything in a several thousand mile radius in more than one country, there were all kinds of political and diplomatic problems.

When the subject was finally dropped, they sat in an awkward silence. Kaoru was holding Kenshin's hand again, and Megumi was sitting in Sano's lap next to the bed. Tokio and Misao were perched on the footboard, each wearing visitors badges on their foreheads in bright green.

"Did you know?" Kaoru finally asked suspiciously. Everyone exchanged confused looks except Kenshin. "That he," she pointed at him. "was going to propose?"

"Propose?" Misao asked, jumping up and grabbing Kaoru's wrists in her hands. She quickly checked her fingers, sighing with relief when she didn't see anything new. "No ring." She assured Megumi and Tokio.

"Better luck next time, Kenshin!" Sano laughed, clapping Kenshin on the shoulder. He and Kaoru exchanged odd looks before mutually deciding to just go with it for now. The three women expressed their condolences at Kaoru's supposed rejection, then exited with Sano in tow, promising to return the next day.

"They think I said no." Kaoru said, now using Kenshin as a pillow. "Stop wiggling," She added snappishly. He complied, lying still so she could lean on him comfortably.

"Are you going to correct them?"

"Nah." Kaoru cackled evilly. "All the ribbing you'll get will be good for your character." She yawned then. Pulling the covers up to her chin, she rolled onto Kenshin, using him as a bed instead of a pillow. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and said, "Good night."

But she was already asleep. Smiling to himself, he stroked her hair and fell asleep himself.

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"Kaoru." Kenshin nudged her. "Kaoru, let go of me..."

Nothing happened. A few minutes ago, two of the volunteer nurses at the severely understaffed hospital, Tara and Yara, had informed him that wasn't allowed to be in Kaoru's room until nine, and wasn't ever allowed to stay overnight in her bed. Now he was attempting to remove himself, but his fiancée was making it difficult.

He tried to sit up and she dragged him back down, hands fisted into his shirt. When he managed to pull himself halfway upright, she punched him in the shoulder and then continued to shove him down again. This was beginning to look like an epic feat.

"Dammit, Kenshin, stay still." She mumbled against his chest. When he kept moving anyway, she yanked him down by his shirt front, pulling so hard he was afraid she was going to rip his shirt off. He gave up after another valiant effort that was of no avail. Lying back down, he wrapped his arms around her. The nurses would have to deal with it. Kaoru really wasn't going to let him leave.

Unless...

Whispering into her ear, he muttered, "I can appreciate you wanting to rip my shirt off, Kaoru, but this isn't exactly the time-"

She let out an embarrassed muffled squeal and then tugged sharply on his hair. Then she rolled off of him, almost falling off the bed.

"Shut up." She told him, rubbing her eyes sleepily. Her ponytail had come undone, strands of hair falling into her face. "Is it early?"

"It's seven." Kenshin informed her, getting out of bed. "I have to work. I'll be back in half an hour."

"Fine." Kaoru groaned, looking around for the bag of clothes Misao had brought her yesterday. It was partially under the bed. She picked it up and went into the bathroom. A muffled thump was heard as she slammed into the sink.

Kenshin left her room silently. It was time to get the ring.

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"What about this one?" Kaoru asked, holding up a long nightgown in pale yellow.

It was Misao and Kaoru's annual nightwear shopping trip. Megumi was at a medical conference and Tokio had to work, so the four friends had decided to go dress shopping later on. For now, Misao and Kaoru looked through racks and racks of fancy nightgowns, slips, pajama sets and other random things like fuzzy slippers.

"It's a maternity gown, Kaoru. I know you like to be comfortable, but..." Misao shook her head sadly. Kaoru was a wonderful person, but her personal style tended to border on the extremely casual. Honestly, how that girl bagged any date or any man without her help...

"Oh, you don't know?" Kaoru asked with feigned surprise. Here was the moment she'd been waiting for. She pulled out another gown, this one short and in pale green, than frowned and grabbed one in dark blue. Kaoru held up her nightgowns in Misao's shocked face. "What about these?"

"Forget the gowns!" The weasel-girl yelled. Kaoru was not implying what she thought she was implying...was she? Was she? Grabbing the gowns and dumping them on the floor, Misao broke a hanger. "What don' I know?"

"I'm pregnant." Kaoru smiled sweetly, reaching out for a rack behind Misao and choosing a few nice pajama sets. Standing there with surprise prominent on her visage, Misao didn't notice the rings catching the department store lights on Kaoru's hand at first. There were two- a sapphire embedded yellow gold and an unusual ring of black gold with a flawless sparkling diamond. An engagement ring...and a wedding ring? She had not!

"You-what-how-when-when did you..." Misao trailed off as she realized the truth. She dropped all of her shopping bags on the floor, letting clothes and other things spill out onto the floor. "You said no!"

"No, I said yes. You just never asked." Smiling brilliantly and smugly, Kaoru tossed her a mocking look before scooping up all her maternity nightgowns and another small bag. She turned on her heel, her arms full, and walked away, presumably to the register. Misao stood there trying to process the information. At first she couldn't comprehend the idea of Kaoru, the man-hater, the heart-breaker, ever getting married and having kids. Then it all seemed to click. One important, life-altering detail stood out in her mind above all others.

The small bag Kaoru had taken with her!

"Hey! Kaoru! Stop! You stole all my chocolate! Kaoru!"

_Finis_

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**And that's all, folks. I know it's both abrupt and short, but I had always planned to end it this way. TI is finally finished. My next project is Fever, the third in the Garden of Heaven series, and then Mentoring, the sequel to...TI. Yes, there is more. Mentoring is really more about the Himura family dynamic. It'll be very short, just a peek into their lives. **

**I've really enjoyed writing this, and each and every person who reviewed this helped me in some way. Having someone even say "update soon" means something to me. Thanks to everyone who read this strange forage into the world of RK AU.**

**This has been chickentyrant5.**


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